LunaticScreamer

[spoiler=Ch16 Part 2: The Tanks Go Down] Amelia spears a Cavalier in the face, then gets a heal from Dozla. The other two Cavaliers are so dead on the next enemy phase which is good because if you can tell, there's a few Great Knights coming my way. Tethys & Saleh finish off the last of the Warriors. Amelia skewers the last two Cavaliers near her while Innes eats the last shot of Purge. Think there's only a couple shots of Bolting left to tank and that'll be it for siege tomes. Doesn't take long before the first Great Knight gets into combat. Since they can double most of my army, making sure hps are at full or close to it is vital so nobody dies. Dozla's keeping the frontline against the Great Knights healed up, picking up another level for himself. Doesn't take too much effort before the first Great Knight falls. As I continue to chip down the Great Knights, a Thief appears to the northeast. Since I missed a shot of Purge against the first Thief, I don't have charges left to safely blow up this one. Luckily, I planned for this and came with a Plan B for this jerk. Tethys stands next to Innes and gets an extra turn granted to her, then Innes uses a Warp staff to send Tethys over to the Thief (and picking up some glorious magic for himself in the process). Tethys then annihilates the Thief. That was the last one this chapter will dish out so I can get the loot in the northeast when everything's dead. God I hate how dodgy these asshats are. Going to have to back off a bit since a couple more are incoming from the north. Tethys has some company joining her in the northeast. Sadly, it's just a total of three of these guys which have a 0% chance to hit her while she's standing on a pillar. It's hard to put this into words, but Innes got really lucky here. Had he not dodged the strike of this now dead Great Knight, the other one in range would have had a chance to kill him. And yet, that's not why I had to reload a save state a couple times here. Why? Because I'm using classic derpy strategies which involve getting Tethys into Bolting range, not equipping Audhulma for the res boost, and her getting OHKO'd by Bolting on 21% odds because the game is a dick. On the plus side, this is the last charge of Bolting since Saleh took another shot a bit earlier. Cormag & Innes eventually knock off another Great Knight. Only one more to worry about now. Apparently one Great Knight and one Cavalier have been sitting here for the past few turns. I want to say they were intending to go through the door the first Thief was going to open up, but since I stopped that plan from happening, they're content to just parking their asses there for the rest of their lives. Makes it easier for me at least. Much like how Cormag getting speed will make his tanking duties that much more easier for him to perform. Finally, the team can rest easy since the last Great Knights threatening them are dead. Ismaire's been doing some target practice with the Great Knight (and killing a regular Knight for a Chest Key). She gets a level and gets some badly needed speed. Honestly girl, if you get just this for the rest of your leveling career, I'll be perfectly fine with it. Cormag begins luring out the throne room occupants one at a time. He misses one of his strikes which means... Yup. However, one Priest decided to come forward and heal up the wayward Knight a bit first. You can go fuck off and die now, thanks. I'll be swiping that dropped Physic staff too while I'm at it. At this point, the strategy is to just lure out the throne room enemies one by one, then kill them off quickly before they can be healed up. One of the Heroes dropped a Hero Crest which will probably get sold for some extra gold. As the wave of death dealing reaches the two Sages, Saleh is awesome by getting more precious speed for himself. Pretty sure this is payment for Saleh's level. No, scratch that, THIS is payment. Doesn't take too long before both Sages are dead. One dropped a Divine tome. Orson won't take too long to drop despite low hit odds. He simply doesn't have a high enough damage output to keep my squishier & powerful units from wanting to risk combat with him. Eventually, Amelia gets the kill on Orson and picks up some speed for herself. Chest report. Hell, might as well use it for both of them. What's the worst that could happen? Well, Kyle clearly drank something strange because there's both a mini-decoy of himself and he's class changed to the Ephraim Master Lord class which, if you payed attention to his class, probably shouldn't have happened. Oh well, not like it matters for someone I'm not going to use. Sacred weapons only Kyle (Siegmund) and Hayden (Sieglinde) can use. Lovely! Hayden used his bracelet right away when the chance presented itself, turning out like this. As you might notice, he's still got his dark rank, but it went from A to C. Still good enough for Luna which is nice. The big thing by doing this is giving him access to a powerful sacred twin weapon which is also very accurate. Of course, Hayden's frail as fuck. 4 move doesn't help either. Still, he can finish off a weakened enemy so my other team members can focus on dangerous targets if desired. [spoiler=Growths & Comments (Seth)]Seth's growths: Hp: 150% Luk: 80% Str: 40% Def: 45% Skl: 30% Res: 20% Spd: 0% Of course, 0% speed growth. Still, his growths elsewhere besides resistance aren't that bad. Will probably give him a chance in leveling as he could make a fine replacement for Eirika if he gets lucky.

Update time! [spoiler=Ch16 Part 1: Castle of Tanks] Did a full run of Valni to get Ismaire up to speed and picked up some useful loot on the way. This was the boss of the final floor. Cute, isn't it? Apparently Ismaire didn't want speed all that much despite it being at a 45% growth (An extra 5% provided by having her use Metis's Tome). Still, she has capped strength & defense along with plenty of luck so she can wall up fairly well. The extra +5 speed is being provided by equipping Garm while the +2 move is due to handing her the Swiftsole. The tank duo spent their Valni time boosting their weapon ranks for the most part. Amelia could do with another Angelic Robe at some point though so hopefully one pops up as a drop soon. Tethys hit lv20 and picked up a couple points of luck from the two remaining level ups she had left to grow with. Audhulma helps patch up her low resistance a bit if she's forced to deal with spellcasters. Innes got some more magic which is all he really needs right now (and skill obviously so some Secret Books best be appearing soon). He got the Body Ring I had in storage so he can wield Elfire with a bit less of a sting to his AS (currently -3 AS if he uses Elfire). His low luck is covered by having him hold on to the Hoplon Guard to nullify crit chances. Dozla only got one level which I think was just skill & resistance, but that's fine. He's not really going to get into heated combat, but rather he's going to make sure nobody hits the floor by tossing heals everywhere when it's required. As for Seth, he didn't get grinded up, but that's because he only joins when you enter Renais Castle. Decent bases so hopefully his growths are acceptable enough that he could possibly replace Eirika on my team as my secondary flyer unit. Definitely got to go a bit quick here to reach the spot I'm going to camp out at which is where that group of spellcasters is hanging out. Also, I figured out a mystery. This would probably explain why the Berserkers in the last chapter initially came with no strength whatsoever. I may just fix this too before the next chapter, but we'll see. Said spellcasters have a sword bearing buddy with them. You can tell that enemies are starting to get very tanky if nothing else as most are coming with capped defensive stats or very close to it and tons of hp. This is going to be fun right here. The two Priests have Physic with one of them dropping said staff upon death. The Sages? Say hello to capped magic siege tome spamming assholes! Tanky as hell too. The Heroes are no less threatening, but luckily they will not move unless someone enters their attack range so it's simple enough to bait them out one at a time once the siege tome charges are depleted. If two Physic users wasn't bad enough, how about a third with Fortify on top of that? Offensively, Orson is weaker than most of his throne room cohorts, but with ranged healing and his high magic, it means I basically need to drop whatever it is I'm attacking in one combat round or he and his healer buddies will patch it up instantly. Breaking into the castle isn't exactly a hard task right out of the gate. Amelia & Ismaire drop the first pair of enemies with ease. I do need to go quick though. In roughly 5 turns, enemies are going to show up where my one Dancer not inside the castle just yet is. Cormag is a defensive titan right now. Not much in the way of offensive power, but when this happens to him most of the time, he could care less. This Fighter dodged both of Cormag's attacks and lived. The same could not be said for another Fighter that wanted to get up close and personal though. Dangit Amelia! Also, Saleh kills the other living Fighter. I shouldn't be using Garm for weak enemies like this, but I need to reach my destination quickly before the enemies arrive. The same could be said of Audhulma really, but Tethys will be able to start chipping down the spellcasters in the south next turn. Innes gets rid of the other Knight with Elfire. Hayden grabs my Purge tome out of storage. I'll be needing to hand it off to Innes later to take care of an enemy that appears. I was hoping for the siege tome jerks to start flinging their spells and target Innes & Cormag, but they decided not to bite just yet sadly. Tethys gets a use of the Barrier staff applied to her before she rushes to the spellcaster group and begins chipping them down. The extra res should help if the ones with Flux decide to connect. Did I say chip down? I mean crit the face off the Luna Shaman and kill him instantly. Tethys is awesome. Ismaire gets some Dancer assistance to reach the Swordmaster and whack him with her Swordslayer for 42 damage. She gets a quick heal to prepare for when said Swordmaster ends up suiciding into her on the next enemy phase. Oh, NOW they wake up. Luckily they don't move so it's just a matter of getting whomever can tank the hits to do so and deplete those siege tome charges quickly. And the bullshit hit connecting hijinks begin anew! Here comes the backup for the enemy. In addition to all the Warriors on the map (5 in total) starting to move, 4 Cavaliers and 6 Great Knights appear. Great Knights are dicks. Not only are they very physically tanky, they have crazy avoid. This is why I need to get a defensive perimeter setup so I can take my time in chipping them down. Luckily the healers in the throne room don't have enough reach to hit these guys or things would be really nasty. Then, there's this guy. He's going to be making a beeline for the chest past the door the Druid is in. Innes is going to make sure he gets put down before that door is opened. As a precaution, Hayden grabs some Elixirs out of storage and passes them to Cormag, just in case my healers get too busy with patching up wounds. After Innes patches up Amelia with Physic, Ismaire & Tethys start cleaning out more of the spellcaster squad. Dozla picks up a level healing up Tethys. A couple Knights attack from the north, but Amelia & Saleh hold them off easily. Another charge of Purge down the drain. Didn't have anyone in range to tank a Bolting shot though. Tethys shoots down the last Knight while Innes throws another Physic charge over to Amelia. Well that's not nice sir! Ismaire does get another turn and lands her strike, meaning one more Garm hit and I'll have full control of my camping spot. And the Warriors begin attacking. This non-crit is going to hurt. That is, assuming Amelia doesn't trigger Great Shield like she did here. Good thing too because the Warrior doubles her and said shield does not trigger for the second hit. Rennac dodges. The Druid is dying on the next turn I reckon. Siege tome draining tasks are going off without any hitches. Cormag takes Amelia's spot in defending against the Warrior horde while Tethys takes Saleh's spot and introduces a Warrior to her Audhulma sword. Eh, it was worth trying. Ismaire takes out the Druid she started with last turn. Still refuses to get speed (on a 45% growth no less!). This guy refuses to get any stats beyond hp. Dozla puts the Fortify staff to good use. After one Warrior decided to attack Cormag, two decided to attack Tethys. It didn't end well for either of them. One actually had a Hand Axe and attacked Rennac with it and connected. Thank god for Fortify saving his ass! The siege tome jerks are slipping a bit. Bolting guy missed last turn and Purge decides to whiff on this one. Thief is going to open the door next turn. Innes puts that plan on ice after shoving a few charges of Purge down the Thief's throat. Should have only been 2 charges, but the Thief dodged the first hit. Having three Dancers is pretty beastly to execute strategies like this one. Part 2 of the update should come later this afternoon.

That missed village in chapter 19x just gives a bit of text. No items gained from it so you missed nothing there thankfully. The Adamant Lance that Cid dropped is also very interesting. It targets an enemy's resistance, making it a very nice tool against the types of enemies that have high defense, but low resistance (Wyvern Riders/Lords, Knights/Generals). Finally, should you decide you want to use Rex for the long term (and, judging by that first level, it's a very tempting idea with 9 more levels of growing space), he'll need a Knight Crest to promote.

Probably a few days late, but a couple things regarding chapter 18. [spoiler=Ch18 Notes]A. If Shon engages Howard in any way (Howard attacking him should count too), then you'll get Secret #2 and fulfill the last part of Shon's personal sidequest (The other parts of it were to let him solo Prologue part 1 and to have him get the killing blow on Pellenore in chapter 10 on the player phase). Of course, Shon usually needs either a Lancereaver or Axereaver so he has an actual chance to dodge at least one hit from Howard (Yeah, Shon tends to be doubled at this point unless he's gotten very speed blessed). B. If Cia were here, she could talk to Howard. This has an effect that reveals itself in a couple chapters, though if you've been paying attention to the story, you may be able to surmise what that effect is. Also...I don't like the forced promotion for Anakin as well. It basically forces you to use him heavily for more than mere extra turn granting so he's lv20 before that point. Still, his stats may be low for you, but between his extra turn granting + staff usage, he'll be MUCH more useful than Shon is. That being said...as a primer for you going into chapter 19, you'll want to ensure you recruit the unit that appears there (Kevin or Anakin can do this) and make sure said unit survives the map. You'll get access to 19x that way. Also going to be praying to the RNG gods that said chapter 19 unit turns out well for you, should you decide to train said unit up. You could use a dedicated non-flying spear unit that rocks the house, that's for sure.

Wow, chapter 6 is reminding me of the Pirate Ship chapter from FE7if with the level of bullcrap you're having to weather here.

Time to wrap up chapter 15. [spoiler=Ch15 Part 2: Desert Goodies] At this point, the reinforcements from the northeast and north are drying up. Just a couple left to mop up now. Going to be using the northwestern quadrant to defend myself for the next wave of reinforcements coming in. That means everything here will die. Tethys finishes off the last Pegasus Knight in the area. She can now head west and rejoin the rest of the crew. 1 range only weapon? Say hello to cheesing your ass out Caellach. Decent evasion though. Plenty of enemies spawn at the start of turn 8 in the southwest, namely everything to the west of that Mercenary. Paladins also make their introductory appearance. Slow as hell, but lots of hp, decent defenses, and high strength/skill/luck. I had Ismaire poking away at Caellach with her Hatchet for fun, Not a bad way to start out really. Eventually, Caellach falls to Saleh. Saleh is goddamned awesome. He also picks up a Hoplon Guard in the process. Shamans are starting to appear, but with my whole team together, any that appear are quickly dealt with, be it on my turn or the enemy's turn. While Dozla gets some healing maintenance done, he picks up the first of the hidden items on this chapter. This oughta makes things much easier for reaching important landmarks quickly. On the next turn, Dozla isn't planning to move around several squares at a time for the rest of the chapter so he takes a chance to promote to Valkyrie. Cormag's going to wall off the entire army coming from the south. He heals up with a Vulnerary beforehand. And now the enemy has no chance of getting past Cormag's defenses unless some extreme luck happens. Shamans: Still getting their asses nuked very quickly. Tethys is here to pick off any sword bearing enemies that get near Cormag since I want him gaining axe ranks from this horde. This isn't good! This though is good. More defenses are very good for Cormag. Innes finally hits A-Staves and can start using that Fortify staff if needed. Cormag's levels as he finishes off the horde from the south. More strength is always appreciated. Uncovering more of the hidden treasure in the desert. Despite not having a Thief around, I'm getting these items within 2-3 turns of waiting. Ahahaha, nope. Amelia is going to have none of your damage dealing shenanigans there sir. With a healer and Dancers nearby, Amelia has no trouble chipping down the flying beast. She also has no qualms luring in two of them at the same, picking up her first level since promotion. Saleh gets rid of one of the Wyvern Riders since he's in the area. Amelia still gives no fucks about taking damage because Great Shield is awesome. And that's the last of the flying enemies in the east for now. And there's the near-useless Eclipse tome, lovely. Only one more hidden item in the desert to get now. Lovely, another Berserker. This one can OHKO anyone on my team if a crit goes off. Luckily, Amelia dodges the strike and delivers one of her own in return. The Berserker is then brought down by Innes & Amelia, the latter picking up the defeated's Devil Axe and S-Spears. Meanwhile, Cormag's been luring in the enemies down south. While that Ranger can double him, he's kinda standing on a fort so the damage he takes is nullified on the player phase. These enemies could hit Cormag all day and they still wouldn't be able to kill him. He's simply too highly defensive for them to get past. Ismaire can completely ruin a Myrmidon's day with her Swordslayer, awesome. This though wasn't awesome to see. Then again, that healing doesn't matter one bit when Ismaire can strike each one down in one hit of her Swordslayer. Getting some speed is nice. Well, this guy is dead. I ended up having Cormag waste the Ranger's Steel Bow uses for kicks so all he has to attack with is a melee weapon. Ismaire picks up another level poking the Ranger. Eventually, Eirika picks up the kill. And there's the last buried item. Somehow those enemies aren't moving so maybe they all stand still until I get into 1-2 range. I am completely and utterly wrong. Apparently they conform to the "wait until one person is in range of another enemy, then bum rush the entire team at once" type of plan. Since all three of my Dancers are on the eastern side, clearing out a big chunk of the incoming horde is easy. Not that it matters when you almost lose one of your units though. Still dangerous, but there's a decent wall line available. Would rather have Amelia in Rennac's spot, but she was forced to pickup Duessel so he doesn't suffer a stabby death by the Wyvern Rider. Rennac heals himself up. Both the Wyvern Rider and the Ranger have to hit him to kill him off at full hp. Think I'm in the clear. Definitely in the clear. Only the Ranger remains now. Tethys & Innes finish off the Ranger. Cormag's been cleaving through the horde in the south with minimal issue. There goes the last couple non-boss enemies. As for Valter, he's much more competent than Caellach. Even more evasive, tanky, and two nasty weapons. Tethys is about the only one who can really beat down Valter at an appreciable rate. She gets a level early on while chipping him down. Eventually, she gets the kill with a crit from her Killer Bow and scores a Fili Shield for the storage pile. More sacred weaponry, nice. Gleipnir's not going to see a whole lot of use unless I can get someone like Fado up to S-Dark though. That's the end of chapter 15. [spoiler=Growths & Comments (Artur, Ismaire)]Artur's growths: Hp: 100% Luk: 0% Str: 0% Def: 80% Skl: 55% Res: 0% Spd: 45% Eh, not the best if only because I already am in possession of several units that can be good frontline meatshields. Still better than some previously acquired characters though. Ismaire's growths: Hp: 40% Luk: 50% Str: 110% Def: 80% Skl: 0% Res: 20% Spd: 40% Hmm, she's got some potential. Decent enough growths at least. Might give her a run in Valni and see how she turns out.

Time for an update. [spoiler=Ch15 Part 1: The Return of Kyle McFailsalot] Time for some promotions! Cormag went for the Great Knight while Amelia went with General. Statboosters get used too. Cormag uses an Energy Ring while Saleh gets fed some Speedwings. This map provides quite the challenge initially. There's a ton of enemies, most of them confined to the southeastern corner, with more on the way as the chapter progresses. Also, a certain failure lord makes his return and he's going to need help. Also, remember that Berserker with all of 7 strength? Everyone mocked him for this. There are two things that you don't talk trash about if you're some kind of FE enemy. One is Rex from The Last Promise obviously. The other... Berserkers. This guy took offense to being called a weakling and took measures to correct it (In theory. In reality, I fixed the Berserker's strength growth in the Nightmare editor. Hopefully I don't have to do that again for a promoted enemy). That being said, while there are only two Berserkers in this map, neither one is to be fucked around with. Remember how Tethys has capped defense? Well, this guy decides to crit her with his Dragon Axe and she's dead in one hit. Luckily, he's an idiot and also brought a Hand Axe, meaning he just needs to be enticed to use it. For the record, this Berserker is the one just to the east of where the party starts. Tethys is going to be getting comfortable to the east of Jehenna for awhile. Not only to intercept the incoming Berserker while picking off this Mercenary, but to deal with reinforcements that'll be coming in after a few turns. Innes & Saleh perform a bit more cleanup near the start. Eirika has an important job to do early on and that's to get Dozla shuttled to the southwest. Standing on the fort means nothing will be able to target her on the enemy phase. Speaking of the enemy phase, nothing of importance happens other than a Mercenary eating a crit from Cormag and Tethys luring in the Berserker (but missing one of her two counterattacks). Tethys tries to weaken the Berserker with a Killing Edge crit, but fails to get anything of the sort. Not wanting the Berserker to live past this turn, she gets an extra turn and breaks out Audhulma to finish him off and pick up a Dragon Axe. Eirika has her Javelin equipped while Gerik & Rennac are also in the southwest to help out the incoming group of people. Also, a wall is formed around Duessel back up to the north so the Wyvern Rider doesn't gank him. Oh yay, Kyle's back. Wonder who he brought along this time. More on that in a bit. First, some random enemy combat. A couple of the enemies survive, but two Mercenaries get torn apart by the wall duo of Cormag & Amelia. Well then, I really hope he's brought some competent help for once. And apparently Kyle bringing in people with severe offensive problems rears its ugly head again. Promoted and with 10 strength? Lovely. At least Artur has some good defensive stats and has a Silver Lance if some significant combat is required of him. As for the other person? Well Caellach, you should have made sure your prey is actually, you know, dead. Why? Queen Ismaire is back for revenge! She's also level 10, but she's unpromoted so those bases are not bad at all besides speed & resistance. She also has a Swordslayer so if something like a Myrmidon wants to get close, she can probably smite him or her down in one hit. Considering one of the items hidden in the desert here, I'll have to see if her growths are good enough to possibly get a spot on my team. Now, I need to get this team up north and quickly. At the start of turn 8, there's going to be a group of problems emerging from the southwest. Eirika skewers the Shaman to start. Fado or Hayden could get some good use out of this on high resistance enemies. Remember, both have A-Dark so they can use stuff like this. With some Dancer power, Dozla visits this village and picks up a Master Seal. If Ismaire turns out to have potential, she can have this to promote. The one Wyvern Rider that Innes hit in the enemy phase last time gets a face full of Excalibur and dies. The other one eats arrows and dies as well. Note the Pegasus Knights in the northeast. Tethys will be parked near them over the next few turns to make sure they die quickly. Want to get someone with good offensive power to the southwest so Saleh begins his trip there. On the way, he skewers a Mercenary. Despite the other Mercenary there being able to double him, he can take a double from that guy plus hits from both Fighters and still live so he'll be just fine. Well, that was a fail. Artur even took a hit in return to boot. Still, this Brigand is the only enemy in range of the southwest team so he'll be ok as well. As the next enemy phase begins, this Pegasus Knight survives simply because she attacked at melee range This one also survives...until she realized Tethys gets to counterattack and takes an arrow to the face and dies. Saleh's doing just fine, killing two of his attackers. One of the Fighters decided to keep on going north. Axe using enemies did not fare too well this enemy phase. More Pegasus Knights have spawned to the northeast as well as to the north. Innes removes one of the northern ones. Cormag doesn't give a damn about effective damage as he doubles this Fighter and kills him off. Amelia can OHKO a Fighter, but she decides on overkill instead. Fine by me! None of the Pegasus Knights in the northeast are going to get past Tethys sadly. Well damn, that's not nice. However, Duessel's right behind Fado which means... One dead Fighter! Saleh skewers another enemy, this time a Mercenary. Once that Brigand dies, the southwestern team can dive north. Said Brigand goes down to a combination of Eirika, Artur, and Ismaire. Healing & extra turn granting round out the southwestern's team turns for the time being. More Pegasus Knights making poor life survival decisions. Poor Myrmidon can't damage Eirika. She responds with a crit & normal hit, putting the Myrmidon very near death. More reinforcements mean more Excalibur & bow deaths. Saleh skewers another enemy while Amelia heals up. One last Myrmidon gets speared in the face thanks to an extra turn granted to Saleh. Part 2 should be up later today.

Been a couple days, but here's an update. [spoiler=Ch14: Where Did the Difficulty Go?] Considering the challenge of the last chapter, this one's completely and utterly docile. Very few promoted enemies and the only reinforcements that come at the start of my turns come from the southeast and are easily dealt with. Just going to show some highlights from this chapter like this door that Dozla opens up. Lots of enemies inside, but the interesting one is that Great Knight in the back. That's the replacement for Rennac and I need Gilliam to have a conversation with the unit and he/she will come to my side. Some Dancer help gets Innes up to start breaking down the guards inside, but one of his attacks misses the Knight. Since I don't want him dying, Cormag comes up and swaps inventories for the upcoming enemy phase. I want to get Innes to A-Light as quickly as possible and want to leave as many viable targets as possible for him. All these minor chance to crit makes combat for Innes a little scary as any one of the triggering means a very dead Innes or damn near it. Luckily, this was not a crit. Also, Cormag gives no fucks about your puny magic ways. On the next player phase, Innes takes back his weapons and throws one last Shine blast over to the Knight, killing him and picking up both A-Light and a solid level which caps his speed. Now you just need to get magic like the damn blazes there sir. With some Dancer help, the entire room gets cleaned out sans the Great Knight. Fado killing a Fighter nets a Swordreaver for the pile, yet another axe I can't use right now. Welp, nevermind that issue with the axes because Marisa here ends up being my first possible unit to use axes. That speed base is bad though. Considering I have Amelia & Cormag who are prospective units that can promote into classes with axe using capabilities, I'll have to see how her growths shape up before deciding if I want to use her. Also, she has the Member Card. Very very important and the reason I went through Valni beforehand to get some gold built up. With Innes at A-Light, he's now going to be healing at every opportunity he can get in order to hit A-Staves and use that Fortify staff. Meanwhile, a small group is checking out some of the other doors. The poor Soldier in front of this one got owned and, on the next turn, Dozla opened up the door with his Unlock staff, then got rescued by Eirika so Hayden & Tethys can double team this Knight and kill him. With some Dancer power, Dozla's able to act after being dropped by Eirika and heal up Hayden. The other team continues to go north with Innes blowing up this potentially nasty Myrmidon with 20 str/skl/spd and a Killing Edge. He drops a Hero Crest for the pile. Fado kills a Fighter, Innes moves forward a bit and grabs Fado's Elixirs to heal himself up, and Cormag moves forward, then gets his Javelin equipped thanks to Gilliam. Gotta love Canto on mounted units. Not that Gilliam was going to be in any danger though. After a very uneventful enemy phase, Tethys opens a chest revealing a Guiding Ring. Dozla's going to like this when I'm past the upcoming desert chapter. Nothing in the northeast treasure room is alive right now. Half of them suicided on my team in the enemy phase and the rest got picked off just now. Nice loot in the northeast. Here comes the turn based reinforcements. Three Cavaliers now with three more coming the next turn and the turn after that. Meanwhile in the northeast, there's a good reason I had Innes packing a Restore staff. Insurance just in case one of the Berserk charges lands. Also, Cormag lost hp because he lured in a Luna Shaman. Unfortunately, that Shaman had to get into Saleh's attack range and,, well... Yup! Another enemy phase passes and Saleh got hit by the Berserk staff. Innes is right there for the status removal though. Saleh then kills the status jerk (the only one on the map and the sole healer of the enemy side to be honest). A free Mend staff is nice. Eirika's been acting as the guard for the team down south while Tethys gets some target practice against some Longbow using Archers. Those Cavaliers do sting as a couple have just enough speed to double Eirika while she has the Horseslayer equipped, requiring some healing from Dozla to patch her up. Still though, she's doing her guard duties well. Nothing short of dumb luck will allow the Cavaliers to kill Eirika. Also, as you can see in the above pic, the last group of Cavaliers have come in. After a few turns, I decided to have my nuclear weapon of doom go and speed up killing the Cavaliers. With some Dancer help, Tethys kills three of them. Two more that were weakened beforehand die by Hayden and Eirika's hands. After another boring enemy phase goes by where Gerik takes a hit, Eirika pokes the only living Cavalier left and gets a solid level. More levels like this girl and you'll make a fine tank. Since the northeast team ran out of Door Keys, I need Dozla up there to open the door to the throne room. Innes is sent down south to be that team's healer (and they have enough Door Keys to open up the rest of the rooms there, no worries.). Tethys kills off the last Cavalier that draws breath. This is, quite literally, the only extremely dangerous enemy besides that Myrmidon back in the northeastern treasure room and the Berserk wielding Priest. Capped strength and a Silver Bow makes it very dangerous. Since I'm too lazy to bring Tethys up here to lure out and tank the Sniper, I'm going to have Fado do the honors as he has just enough speed & hp to take one hit, assuming a crit doesn't happen. First though, Fado is going to counterkill the Knight over the wall to the south. He has a Javelin and I don't need that around when I'm trying to lure the Sniper out. Meanwhile down south, Innes is going full blast with his healing duties, picking up more magic in the process. Fado didn't have quite enough oomph to kill off the Knight on the enemy phase. He finishes the job now and...oh, some of the enemies from the throne room are moving. Well then! Luckily, the Sniper is not of the enemies that moves suddenly. This Knight though got a little too close to Fado and not only missed his strike, but got doubled & killed in return. With a bit of help from Duessel, Fado kills one more Knight and leaves another on 1 hp. Saleh kills that one, leaving me with only the Sniper to worry about now. Good thing I have Dozla nearby for healing as this shot was taken after patching Fado up. He can just barely survive one hit. After one more turn of Fado luring in the Sniper while at full hp, the Sniper gets surrounded and maimed over the next few turns. Last of the treasure chests. Also, Tethys got an empty level cleaning house down here. As for the boss, Carlyle owns himself for two reasons. First, despite having good stats and a batshit high amount of avoid, he only has a weak ass Iron Sword as his offensive choice. Second...remember how Murray back in chapter 7 moved because he was a Thief? Yup, Carlyle will move to steal something as well. Say goodbye to your throne bonuses sir! Fado has the Member Card and is going to make his way to the Secret Shop. He kills a Knight first to pick up a level though. Some Dancer help ensures Fado is just outside of Carlyle's range. Buyable Knight's Crests, yay. I pick up two for Amelia & Cormag, then after selling a pack of Vulneraries, I grab a Physic staff. If I had more money, I'd have grabbed a couple of every Killer weapon and perhaps another Barrier staff. Carlyle's about to engage in a losing battle. Neither Saleh or Dozla have any items that he can steal and since Carlyle doesn't move, he'll be forced to attack Saleh all the time. So long as Dozla heals Saleh if he's in any danger of dying, Carlyle's dead. Like so. Awesome. Anyways, there's nothing else of interest in this chapter so the remaining enemies are cleaned up, then Hayden gets over to the throne room to seize. Dude, you didn't even kill her in one hit. Unless you have a poisonous weapon and Ismaire just forgot to pack Antitoxins for the trip. Oh yeah! Tethys and Innes are going to LOVE these weapons. That being said, I might as well show off some potential promotion choices. For Dozla, going Bishop knocks his move down 2, but gives him utility versus monsters via the Slayer skill. As for going Valkyrie, there's no Slayer skill, but he keeps his 7 move, gets a horse to ride on, and gets a bit more magic & con to boot. Leaning very heavily towards Valkyrie here, but I'm not going to promote him right away since the desert chapter is next and his movement rate would likely get cut very hard if he had a horse. Regardless of which path he chooses, Dozla will gain access to Light magic to defend himself with. As for Cormag & Amelia, both have the same promotion choices and the same promotion bonuses. No move change at all going to either General or Great Knight which is nice as is gaining access to swords & axes no matter which route is chosen. General provides stronger stat boosts and the Great Shield ability while Great Knight grants a horse and starts out a rank higher in axes (D-Axes compared to General's E-Axes). Definitely could go any way here with these two. Finally, a bit of a preview. Berserkers appear now which is bad. Well, assuming they didn't get the negative growth curse placed on them in a stat they really need to be, well, deadly. I very nearly considered changing their growth in the Nightmare editor to fix that strength growth honestly, heh. If people want me to do that so this guy and the one down south are legitimate threats to me, say so in the thread and I can do that. [spoiler=Growths & Comments (Marisa)]Marisa's growths: Hp: 30% Luk: 30% Str: 145% Def: 95% Skl: 10% Res: 5% Spd: 40% Not all that bad, but note that Marisa has 5 move while Cormag & Amelia, both potential Great Knight prospects, get 6 move if they go that route. Still, Marisa has better growths than some of the other units I've picked up so perhaps I'll give her a go at Valni and see if anything comes of it.

Been a little busy the past couple of days, but I got most of my Valni grinding out of the way. Here's a quick highlights reel of what transpired. [spoiler=Valni Grinding Before Ch14] Before kicking off the party, I tossed my Elysian Whip to Saleh so he could promote. That +3 con is huge, allowing him to wield most spear with only a -1 or -2 AS penalty at best. Could do with more speed, but given his growth, I'll have to take what I can get. Couldn't think of anyone else in dire need of some extra strength or magic so I tossed the Energy Ring to Innes. Being able to set up defensive walls like this allows me to train low leveled units such as Cormag with Javelin spam until they get enough levels or enough defense to fend for themselves. Since my frontline isn't totally immune to damage, Dozla's there along with two of my Dancers to ensure I can get any unit healed as it is needed. Clusterfuck 3: Revenge of Clusterfuck! The upper levels start featuring Wights (promoted Skeletons) in both melee & ranged varieties. Low move, but certainly not lacking in the other stats. Got a ton of useful supplies. A few killer weapons, a pair of Wyrmslayers, a siege tome (which Innes will need to work up his light rank in if he wishes to use it), Fortify, and some gold. Think I have enough to get what I want from chapter 14 so that'll come next time. Oh yes, one last thing...levels! My gamble on Cormag payed off handsomely. Lots of hp, speed, defense, and resistance as expected along with a nice amount of strength & luck plus a surprise point of skill on top of it all. I think he's staying around for a good long while as one of my better tank units. Hayden managed to pick up a point of speed from the 3 levels he had remaining. The wonders of chipping away at an enemy one hit at a time does wonders for promoted units and their levels like Fado here. Lots of skill & resistance with some precious speed tossed in there too. Innes picked up a couple levels and grabbed a couple weapon ranks (B-Staves and C-Light). He also capped his resistance. Saleh decided to tell that 25% strength growth of his to take a hike as he hits it three times in the four levels he gained at Valni. A rare point of speed helps too. Eirika will make a good backup flyer for Saleh to have on his side. She's not as strong as him, but she has much more defense, giving her a better edge when it comes to luring out a powerful foe (hopefully one that can't double of course). Ewan only got a couple levels before I ran out of Valni enemies to blow up. If he had more of a chance to level, he'd be a magic tank compared to Eirika's physical tank. Certainly not bad for a flyer to have so I may give him a chance to train up some more if no new useful allies show themselves. Tethys got a few levels too. Most of that was from guarding chokepoints while equipped with a bow to minimize counterattack chances. Oh yes, two of those three levels gave her strength. She probably won't cap strength unless she gets really lucky, but she'll come damn close to it. Now then, I think I'm ready for chapter 14 so that'll be coming up next time.

I suppose, yeah. Since I have a save before the battle, I may try it here after posting part 2 and see what happens. Anyways, time to wrap up this chapter. [spoiler=Ch13 Part 2: Difficulty Spike II] That's a lovely way to start off. Innes missed his counterattack. Of course, Innes can double his attacker and he decides on glorious overkill for his second hit. Hayden recruits Syrene. Fado & Amelia were able to make it safely down south and begin doing work. They double team one of the approaching Cavaliers to kill it off. A little healing chain begins here. Can't afford to have anyone far under their max hp until the dust settles. Innes uses an extra turn provided to him to go blow up a Fighter and get a level from it. Oh for the love of... Die you idiot, thank you. Dozla gets an extra turn to go patch up Saleh. Saleh then gets an extra turn himself to go destroy the Mercenary lying about in the west. Eirika patches herself up with a Vulnerary since the only two healers are too far away from her. She'll also be picking up Syrene and getting her to safety. Not much left now except what's to the east. If I was smart, I would have tried to see if I could assassinate Aias right here and now, but I wasn't smart sadly. Nor was this Cavalier who attacked Fado. He got smacked kindly in return for almost half of his hp. Eirika picks up Syrene. I should also mention I Syrene's equipment into storage. Tethys is about to murder so much now. One very dead Cavalier thanks to her. As for the Cavalier down by Fado? He's dead now thanks to Ewan. While I would be annoyed by a random Archer being healed...said Archer went from full to 1 hp thanks to Tethys and her Silver Bow. This Priest can't heal all that up with one Physic use. Oh yay, look who's back. Not much has changed about him. No idea why he felt like packing two Brave Lances, but whatever. So long as he doesn't get near any of my low defense units, he'll not be an issue. A group of about four Brigands might be though. A pinch slower than Mercenaries, but with much more hp and 7 move to compensate. Then, there's this guy. Thankfully, having only 4 move limits just how nasty he could really be. Innes blows up one of the approaching Cavaliers, but takes a hit in the process. Innes gets granted another turn, but more importantly, Tethys moves into a forest in the west. She's going to slow down Pablo's group as much as possible so I can make it to the end. Innes blows up another Cavalier. Then he get another turn granted to him. He'll eventually use this to dive into safety in the south and get healed up by Dozla. With a bit of Dancer help, Amelia & Saleh do some cleaning up of a few Cavaliers impeding on my sanctuary. Nosferatu gives Hayden so much more utility. Normally, he could have been ORKO'd by the Archer on the enemy phase, but the counterattack with it equipped allows him to get back all the hp he lost from the first arrow so he can survive the second one. Also, eyeballs don't seem to take effective damage from bows. Lulzs. Ah, the ever so awesome earth shattering kaboom as performed by Tethys. The same girl who's not getting hit by the enemy team right now for that matter. Not much happening at the moment. Tethys decided to step back near the party, probably to blow up something that got near them, then get an extra turn granted to her. Meanwhile, Dozla gets some healing done on Fado, then is rescued. That way, Gerik & Rennac can back up into the safe area as much as possible. Tethys dives right back in to slow down the horde some more. Still need Amelia to wall up for me so she uses a Vulnerary to heal herself. More enemy phase shenanigans show that Rennac is quite adept at dodging attacks. A couple of Cavaliers try their luck against the Saleh & Amelia wall of doom. They do not survive. The poor Warrior still can't hit Tethys. Worse yet, he eats a counterattack for 1 damage. Tethys then becomes even more awesome. A couple more Cavaliers try their luck, but either they can't hit hard enough or they don't do enough damage to kill anyone. Final turn. Just got to ensure my defense is solid enough and I've got this. Innes hops in a forest and pokes a Mage. He'll be safe here from the horde up north. Rennac uses a Vulnerary. I'll need him to tank for me one last time. A little bit of shuffling around allows Hayden to poke the same Mage that Innes hit from the safety of the mountains. Hayden only gets one stat, but it's one he can always use more of. Dozla heals up Amelia. Amelia then walks up to the nearest Cavalier and OHKOs him with her Horseslayer. As the final enemy phase begins, that silly Mage decides he wants Hayden to kill him. Hayden obliges. The enemy force can't kill anyone this turn, meaning... Chapter over with, sweet. That was one I had to think long and hard on in order to get out of it in one piece. Free money is always good. So is seeing your enemy die by an Entombed's hands. [spoiler=Growths & Comments (Syrene)]Syrene's growths: Hp: 25% Luk: 35% Str: 40% Def: 5% Skl: 120% Res: 50% Spd: 30% Not sure of how much prospect Syrene has given her low speed and low growth. Still better then some of the units I've been getting as of late though.

Honestly, I didn't even think of it at the time. I just wanted the boss dead, heh. That being said, time for an update. [spoiler=Ch13 Part 1: Difficulty Spike I] Well, I decided not to do that Valni training I said I would. I did toss my Dragonshield over to Saleh though since he's my best flying unit right now and I don't see that changing anytime soon. That being said, this chapter is quite the step up in difficulty compared to the last couple. Three ballistas in a tight formation ensuring that you'll be in range of at least one if you try to go after another one most of the time. To boot, there's two Archers stationed at each ballista, meaning you need at least two units going to each ballista if you don't want that second Archer taking the fallen's place. Also, if you thought promoted enemies were bad, there's a triple threat of them here. Luckily, only one of them ever moves on their own. The other two only move if there's a valid target in range. Two Priests that are annoying for their own reasons. Top that off with a boss I'm not going to be able to approach easily, if at all, and you'll know why I wanted to strangle the chapter 7 fucker of a boss that turned himself into a Thief and randomly added a Lockpick to his inventory. I'd love that Knight Crest, but between the Ranger trio & Priest duo, it's going to be damn near impossible to even get close to him. Had the Priests not been there, killing him would be possible. As such, I'm just going to skip the crest sadly. I may be able to get one next chapter anyways. Despite the fact I'm going to skip that Knight Crest, there are going to be things I can get on this map. Ross could have been recruited back in chapter 9, but I didn't get him there so he makes an encore appearance here. Luckily, he doesn't stay still and will lurch towards the party, meaning he'll be easy to recruit with either Hayden or Saleh once the chance arises. First order of business is to nuke the operators at one of the ballista locations. The east one is obviously out for good reason so it's either the northern or southern ones. I decide to go for the southern ones and watch as Eirika & Innes kindly boot out the first Archer with ease. With some Dancer assistance, Innes is able to take down the other Archer, giving me full control of the southern ballista. This was probably a little too risky, but it's still the early part of the chapter. Luckily, Amelia lands both hits and takes out the Mercenary. Both of those Archers aren't anywhere near strong enough to take her out by their own. Fado decides to join Amelia. Despite having no magic growth to speak of, he's reasonably sturdy (And, to boot, these Archers have about 13-15 defense & resistance so that's that). Everyone else bolts as far south as they can with the exception of Tethys & Rennac. Tethys is where she so she can get some light damage going on the one Ranger that will be coming in her direction on the enemy phase while Rennac will hopefully draw enough fire so that the one position the Ranger can attack Tethys from isn't occupied. Welp, that didn't go quite as well as I hoped for the Ranger. Still, he can't reach Fado or Amelia up here. Amelia backs off to stay out of range while Fado smacks the Archer in the ballista twice. After some Dancer usage, this is where I stand at the end of the 2nd turn. Everyone's far away from the horde to the north with Tethys acting as a wall for any enemies wanting to go straight south. The Dancer in the forest by that fort is Rennac so any enemies feeling like going his way and attacking him are going to do little damage, 15 hp max be damned. Oh yes...those Soldiers you saw up above before the first enemy phase? They all died to counterattacks. Thought I should mention that. The dingbat Ranger decides to take the Rennac bait. This works well actually. An Archer challenges Tethys to an archery competition. He loses big time. Big whoop sir. Amelia can tank that damage easily. Also, you're on 16 hp. Say hello to the afterlife, courtesy of King Fado. Also, the king gets a solid level. More of these and he can start meatshielding it up something fierce. Finally, take note of the enemies just outside the stat screen. A Mercenary & Fighter combo have been spawning in from the northwestern forts for a couple turns (and will do so for at least one more turn). After Tethys shoots down a Soldier, I have a nasty situation on my hands...I have 8 potential shots of Thunder from Innes to use. A total of 6 will kill the Ranger, but those aren't the best odds for landing so many required hits. Especially when the last two hits decide to whiff. Now I have to put someone's life on the line. Oh dear, oh dear. You can probably guess what's going to happen if he misses. Thankfully, he doesn't miss. A little rescue, take, and drop sequence ensures Hayden gets back to a safe place. Wondering why Saleh's all out here by his lonesome? He's got an Axereaver for a reason. Yup, those enemy forces from the northwest are getting into fighting range. Time to get Ross recruited. Hayden & Tethys remove the obstacles in his way. With some Dancer help, Hayden moves north and talks to Ross, bringing him to my side. Ross then gets his ass behind my wall of blockers so he doesn't drop instantly. Rennac then moves forward and gives Hayden another turn so he can likewise get to safety. My final Dancer uses his turn to let Tethys go sailing west and nail a Mercenary just north of Saleh. She gets a Zanbato for herself in the process. Saleh pokes a Fighter with his Axereaver. Rennac plays tank for the team this enemy phase. These two along with an Archer attack him, but only the Knight's hit gets through. Fado takes a hit from the ballista. Suddenly, I'm so glad my Eirika replacement is a flyer because I'm going to need it for this new unit. In terms of combat effectiveness, Syrene's not exactly going to be the best. Only 7 speed at lv11 will do that. Still, perhaps her growths will tell a different tale. The main reason I want to recruit her...that Elysian Whip. The two high end bows are good too. Oh yes, she comes with some guards. I don't want to see what their promoted forms are like because oh god those stats. Luckily, I have plenty of effective damage options for them. Tethys shows off one such option. The Wyvern Rider dies after eating two arrows to the face. Saleh kills a weak Fighter. With some Dancer assistance, Innes blasts through the two enemies nearest my main party. One last Dancer turn allows Innes to try luring in one of the incoming enemies from the northwest. The less Fado & Amelia have to worry about, the better. Baiting successful. Innes even lands his counterattack. Not much coming from the enemies this turn. The Wyvern Knight's high stats fall flat in the face of Tethys. That's good! Oh you dirty little bastard. Proof that the Wyvern Knights are secretly females in male clothing...Tethys misses a shot at 95% odds. Luckily, Hayden was in range to help Tethys mop up the dingbat. Innes takes out a Fighter. Take note of the enemies up near Fado & Amelia. Going to need to do some quick clearing here. Well, this should be an easy... Damn! Double Damn! After Eirika likewise fails to land a hit (and eats some counterattack damage in the process), another turn for Ewan allows to finally land the killing blow on the Mercenary. The good news is that this ballista is finally out of ammo. The bad news is that I have some Cavalier reinforcements coming in from behind. Part 2 of the update should follow soon.

Time to wrap up chapter 12. [spoiler=Ch12 Part 2: Tethys Still Steamrolls Everything] As you can see, Tethys is about to ruin the day of a couple poor Baels. Well, maybe ruining their day was overestimating it, but she did knock off a decent chunk of their hp totals. At this point, anything Tethys doesn't kill instantly can be picked off by any other unit. Hayden is one of the few still able to get a decent amount of exp per kill and gets some precious speed for himself upon killing one of the weakened Baels. Innes, now with S-Anima, decides to play around with a Shine tome and picks up a level slaying the other Bael. Quite a few enemies here that are all going to attack at once more or less since they only move when someone's in their range. That's all good, but... When I send out my 24 defense unit to meet them all, carnage ensues. Lots and lots of carnage. A grand total of 8 enemies attack her in this enemy phase. Only three survive, a Bael and two Gargoyles. More strength! Fado & Hayden clean up the survivors of the enemy phase. The other Gargoyle tries to go for Innes. He responds by slamming the flying beast with some magic and it dies. Tethys moves forward a bit and lures in another Bael on the enemy phase, breaking her Iron Blade in the process. Not much to say here. Tethys moves forward. Whatever survives her attacks get picked off by either Hayden, Innes, or even Fado. That Mauthe Doog did not survive a round with Tethys though. Yeah yeah, another weakened enemy dies, but take note of that red-roofed house in the northwest. In a couple turns, Tethys gets up there and gets a prize... Yet ANOTHER Knight. I'd have taken another Dancer at this point honestly. Oh well, he brings another Brave Lance and a free Energy Ring to the storage pile. The other red-roofed house contains a useful staff. New enemy type appears! Not as much defense as Baels, but more skill & speed. Of course, since it came by itself, it dies horribly. A couple of turns later, Tethys triggers another annoying group of flying jerks. Perhaps even more annoying than the first group because they can stay on the mountains and go gank anyone they want in the middle of the canyon. Solution? Tethys is going to handle every single flyer that dares to come her way. Also, the boss dies horribly and Tethys gets a Horseslayer to be sent to storage. The flying jerks begin to attack. Tethys could care less. Especially when she's about to counterattack any Gargoyle in possession of a 1 range spear. I didn't bother to give Tethys any Elixirs. All those enemies would have to hit her and she'd have to miss several 95%+ hit chances in a row for her to be anywhere near death. Honestly, this was to be expected. With two growths under 40% and her speed, defense, and I believe even skill being capped, empty levels like this aren't going to be all that rare for her. So yeah, a few turns worth of attacking a bunch of Gargoyles and Tethys comes out of taking only 7 damage total. She's that damned good folks! Just a few more monsters to deal with now. With some help provided by the Dancers, Hayden gets another level which features more hp and a cap for magic. More luring & weakening nets Hayden another level, this one capping his skill and providing some precious luck. Also, Tethys did get hit there. Those Entombed hit quite hard after all. Tethys cleans up the last couple of enemies in the area as the chapter comes to a close. [spoiler=Growths & Comments (Neimi, Cormag)]Neimi's growths: Hp: 75% Luk: 110% Str: 0% Def: 5% Skl: 15% Res: 55% Spd: 55% Shock and awe, no strength growth with all of 8 strength. Anyone surprised? I'm sure not! Cormag's growths: Hp: 90% Luk: 20% Str: 25% Def: 45% Skl: 5% Res: 80% Spd: 50% Well, there might be a small glimmer of hope for him. Perhaps not as a full time combat unit given bad strength & skill growths, but as a potential meatshield unit given his hp, speed, defense, and resistance growths. Going to do some Valni grinding and see what comes of this potential.

Update time! [spoiler=Ch12 Part 1: Monster Canyon] Innes gets that Secret Book I picked up last chapter kicked his way. May consider tossing him the Dragonshield later so his defense isn't quite as bad too. New party member joins at the start. Given my luck, she'll probably have a 0% growth in strength and make her useless. Thankfully, she brings two very nice weapons for the pile. She holds on to the Dragonspear for the time being, but she trades her Brave Lance over to Ewan and takes an Iron Lance in return. Well, you all probably know about the freeze that occurs when that Bael steps on the square the Skeleton is standing on to the south. I could do some minor dark sorcery to fix that... ...But what's the use? Saleh's going to go nip that little issue in the bud before it has a chance to manifest. Saleh does use some Pure Water since he'll be in range of multiple eyes for the first few turns. Tethys is her usual self. Haven't really seen Baels too much. Not as fast as Mercenaries, but much more defense & hp. Shouldn't be too bad. Ewan eats a hit from the Bael on the enemy phase, but fails to land a counterattack (31% chance on the mountain peak). As for some other characters? They actually do land their attacks and kill their targets. 0/0/0, sweet. Not sweet, oh dear. Triggered the first group of enemies a bit too early. Luckily, I think I can kill the Mauthe Doogs and get into a defensive position to keep my squishies protected from the Gargoyles. Tethys & Saleh do a bit of house cleaning, the latter killing that vile little Skeleton that could have been a catalyst for a freeze bug. Innes, with some Dancer help, takes out a pair of Mauthe Doogs. Hayden kills the third one, then with a Dancer provided turn, gets away from the danger zone. After setting up my defensive line (and having Dozla heal up Ewan), it's time to see who the Gargoyles and that one Bael go after. Luckily, I shouldn't lose anyone except to bullshit criticals. That went pretty well all things considered. Those three, while each taking some heavy damage, can be easily patched up with some Dancer use and my staff users. A random monster decided to occupy the same spot as his recently deceased Skeleton buddy in order to attack Saleh. All he does is fly back a tile and toss a Short Spear at the dingbat to free up the space once again. Everyone's safe for now after doing some house cleaning (and healing up Ewan before he engaged the Bael). . This Gargoyle here? Has a Horseslayer. Well, had a Horseslayer. Tethys destroys the dingbat and claims the weapon for the storage pile. Saleh is still not giving any fucks as he counterkills some poor giant magic eyes. Likewise for Tethys as she gets a lucky critical, taking out a large chunk of the Bael's hp. Hayden finishes off the Bael, ending today's update. I'll have the last party up sometime tomorrow.

[spoiler=Ch11 Part 2: Still Foggy Out There] Tethys gets some mad crit spam going on as she slays four of the enemies in the southeast during the enemy phase. Ok that might be a little more of a problem. Emphasis on "might". Northern team still racking up some kills of their own. Well, that explains why the Deathgoyle hit so hard. Very high stats, but the one thing holding it back a bit is that low hp. If it had another, say, 20 hp max, it'd be that much more dangerous. Not that it would help against Tethys though who plants an arrow in the flyer to end its life. Some actual reinforcements, but they're not really all that strong. Rennac is keeping a couple from breaking through in the southwest while Innes, Ewan, and Saleh kill the ones coming in their team's direction. Tethys: Still not giving any fucks over the next couple of turns! Finally, Hayden reaches Gilliam and talks to him. Gilliam then talks to Eirika, meaning I can now start cleaning up the rest of the enemies and grabbing all the loot from the chests. Of course, there's still quite a few enemies left in the northeast. Oh boy, a random ass skeleton appeared. No biggie since Rennac's dancing buddies are nearby and they can dance away to safety. Alternatively, bring my nuclear weapon over west to wipe the skeleton from the board. Oh big whoop, something can damage Eirika. Either the quick and painful death or a double hit of death. That's what happened to anyone attacking Tethys this enemy phase. Another skeleton came in during that enemy phase and hit Eirika with a Javelin. She retreats and Tethys comes in to clean house with some Dancer assistance. Northeast team isn't needing to do much at the moment so I'm just making sure the other team has nothing to worry about reinforcement wise before moving in deeper. Tethys gets more strength, sweet. That's the last of the reinforcements from the southwest. Meanwhile, the northeastern team is slowly chipping away at the enemies remaining up there with Innes picking up a level after a kill. First chest looted. You know, I should get some Valni training for Fado done soon. He's got some good defensive growths and would make a pretty good meatshield to lure enemies in. Innes picks up C-Staves as he patches up Fado. Slowly but surely, the enemy force is disappearing. Gerik could care less about a pesky Gargoyle as he grabs the second chest. The Secret Book will be going to Innes very soon. Gerik's attacker doesn't last very long. Gerik gets healed up. Everything's fine now. Oh fuck you. That makes twice I should have had to reload a savestate (First time was back in 5x). At least the cheeky bastard doesn't survive the counterattacks. Innes finally makes it down to the other team where he gets some healing. Tethys moves a bit to the west and finds an Entombed & skeleton who attacks her. The Entombed eats a critical sword to the face and dies. Some lighting up of the area, then Innes coming in to kill a bow using skeleton to pick up S-Anima for himself. Last chest get, then Innes gets the Captain Rex award for ending a chapter with a critical hit. I'm sure he'd approve of this, heh. [spoiler=Growths & Comments (Gilliam, Eirika)]Gilliam's growths: Hp: 150% Luk: 30% Str: 90% Def: 0% Skl: 0% Res: 15% Spd: 0% Haha, nope. Still, since he replaces L'Arachel, I'll need to bring him along for one chapter so he can recruit Rennac's actual replacement without needing to spend any gold. Eirika's growths: Hp: 65% Luk: 50% Str: 40% Def: 55% Skl: 5% Res: 95% Spd: 0% Unlike Gilliam, Eirika has some potential use. Yeah, no speed growth sucks, but she has good hp, str, luk, def, and res growths, meaning she could be a meatshield unit once properly leveled up. She may yet be useful to me, we shall see.

Time for an update. [spoiler=Ch11 Part 1: Foggy Conditions] Did a bit of Valni grinding before the next chapter. Innes picked up the last few levels he needed to hit lv20. Used my Guiding Ring to promote Innes to Sage who had the superior movement range, then tossed my Secret Book his way. He'll need every one of them to keep his skill at acceptable levels. Some others got some training done. Saleh completed his run to lv20 and capped strength like a man. Now if only I had two or three Speedwings I could kick his way. Dozla also hit lv20. Next Guiding Ring I get will likely be sent his way. Finally, Hayden & Tethys each picked up a level. Tethys capped speed with hers. Anyways, on with the chapter proper now. Another Fog of War map, but this one's much easier to manage with only one thing of importance besides some chests. Yup, two people that need to join my side. Let's see who they are. First up we have Gilliam. Bases are fine, good weaponry to begin with, especially that Bright Lance. Now watch as his growths are god awful because the game seems to love giving me units with either 0% speed or 0% strength growths. Finally, Eirika. Lots of defense and likewise able to hold her own in battle thanks to a solid weapon. Both her & Gilliam should be able to stand their ground until I can get someone over to recruit them. With some Torch staff use, I get an idea of what's in each possible direction. Going down the narrow western side will be Tethys, Duessel, Gerik, Rennac, Hayden, and Dozla. Everyone else will be taking the other route. Of course, the western team has some...issues hitting targets. That's why I have Dancers of course. However, she uses her first extra turn to shoot down a monster behind the weakened one, then a second extra turn to switch over to a melee weapon for some counterattacking during the enemy phase. Speaking of the enemy phase, the three skeletons near Saleh all attack him. He only eats a hit from one of them and none survive the counterattacks, especially the first sucker to attack him. Both of these girls get into more than a fight each, but this is how every fight started out. Their assailants did not survive the counterattacks. Gilliam's not half bad in combat either thanks to his Bright Lance. Tethys continues to murder southwards. Here's the boss, but like Pablo in the last chapter, the Paladin can't damage Tethys at all. Easy kill once he decides to move. Dozla's getting brought down towards the west with some Dancer powers. Since nobody on the eastern team has 20+ defense, Innes scouts ahead with his Torch staff to find quite the army waiting for them. Easy enough to lure out one or two at a time and kill though. Speaking of killing, that's just what Innes & Gilliam do on this enemy phase. Tethys doesn't care about the boss as she smacks him twice for even thinking to attack her. Tethys gets a little Dancer assistance to bring down the "boss" and pick up a level. Her levels are going to look more and more like this now that her two best stats, speed & defense, are capped. Another extra she gets is used to switch her over to a bow for some counterattacking on the next enemy phase. Pictured: The two enemies that did not survive the counterattacks (Mauthe Doogs have crap for speed so Innes easily doubles them). Tethys gets some extra turns to start carving through every enemy that appears in her path. If her skills with a sword weren't good enough, they just got better since she's finally at S-Swords after killing that last monster. A couple skeletons try their luck against Amelia in the next enemy phase. They don't fare any better sadly. Nor do any enemies who try to attack my Dancers because they either miss in glorious fashion or just can't do any damage to start with. Nothing can stop Tethys right now. Nothing. Nothing really happening up north so Amelia gets patched up by Innes. More attacks that aren't going to really register on any threat scales anytime soon. Dozla reveals a pretty huge group of enemies to the east of Tethys. She'll swing by here and just shame the entire group on her own. Innes decides to go and nuke a lured in Longbow skeleton for kicks as part 1 of the update comes to a close. Part 2 should be up soon.

Alrighty, time to wrap up chapter 10. [spoiler=Ch10 Part 2: A Flock of Non-Jerks] More of the same happening right now. Healing up units that get damaged in the slightest (Fado's been getting shot at by the ballista jerk in the south). Enemies making poor decisions that get them killed half of the time. Me being lazy and not moving people that are weak to bows like a dingbat. While I commend the Priest for putting someone to sleep, it's going to get nullified by Dozla in the next player phase. Nothing's going to sour my mood right now except for... ...Flying female annoyances. Oh dear, oh dear. This is what I was waiting for. Well, might as well look at their stats. Basically, flying Mercenaries. Luckily, the Pegasus Knights only have 4 move so they're not as nasty as they could be. That Falcoknight is quite dangerous, but she starts out way in the back on the southwest side of the map. That, combined with her 6 move, means she can be singled out and dropped before she can even think to become a major threat. Just cleaning up a couple enemies first. Tethys gets to murdering as many flying enemies as possible. As for that Archer that mysteriously went poof? Well, Dozla removed sleep from someone just after Fado hit the Archer twice. Natasha needed a snack after her siesta and found said Archer. Mystery solved! Saleh goes after the last flyer in the northwest. He'll likely be the only desirable target for this one since she has a Javelin and Saleh's the only one right now not currently using a ranged weapon. Called that one. Oh dammit, I forgot this group appears at the same the flyers do. Promoted units are nasty for the most part in case you've forgotten. Thankfully the Ranger only has a 2 range weapon so I can box him in like I did the Sniper in the last chapter. Good to know the female flyer asshole factor is still in play after the likes of Fe7if.... ...for all of five seconds! Tethys gets some help from the Dancers to swing down to the southwest and deal with a jerk before his healing trade can be put to work. A free Torch staff is provided upon his death. One more round of Dancer power lets Tethys attack an Archer, but no crit came so Fado comes in to finish the Archer off. Looks like the Falcoknight found her first target. Too bad Tethys counterattacked twice and hit both times. Should make killing her a much easier job as a result. Nice try, but no. Natasha ain't dying right now. Barely survived the double hit though. Hayden blasts the rogue Brigand once, then Vanessa comes in for the killing blow and gets...a level. Female flyers = Assholes. I have seen NOTHING that disputes this theory. As much as I'd like Tethys to deal with the flyer squad, I need her in the east to thin down the Ranger's squad. The flyers in the west need at least one turn to even be close to my team so they can wait for now. Tethys uses her Longbow to weaken one Cavalier, picking up a level for herself. She'll be capping her speed very soon which is nice. Saleh finishes off the weakened Cavalier. Tethys uses an extra turn granted to her to kill the second Cavalier. As for the Ranger? Neutralized! Ewan needed a little Dancer help to get where he is though. Oh, and I suppose Innes picked up a level. Nope! Innes finishes off the Cavalier after Hayden weakened him. Having three Dancers is awesome. Thanks to them, Tethys was able to return to the west and kill all three Pegasus Knights coming on up. Poor Ranger just keeps getting beat up and there's nothing he can do. He'd have been much more of a threat had he decided to pack a sword that day. On the next turn, Tethys finishes off the flyer squad once and for all. More lovely levels before the Ranger eventually meets his doom. Dozla uses his Unlock staff to open the door, then gets an extra turn to back off behind the safety of my other units. Tethys then comes in to shoot down a silly Mercenary for kicks. At this point, I'm just luring the last vestiges of the enemy out one at a time and destroying them. Besides luring out a couple random nobodies who died soon after, this poor Archer got himself caught in the corner. This guy caught sadness too. A little Dancer abuse ensures Tethys can kill the ballista jerk while a Longbow is procured by Innes after dropping the Archer. As for the boss...yeah, he's got stupid high evasion, but his attack power 19 and...oh dear, my Tethys has 24 def. This is not a good day for Pablo. Tethys can survive there sir. She's my star Captain Rex caliber unit after all. Dozla picks up a level doing some random healing maintenance. Tethys also picks up a level while chipping down Pablo. His evasion falters in the face of the newly acquired Lancereaver from a very recently killed enemy. No mulligans dude....annnddddd he runs off, what a dick. He's going to get speared in the face SO hard if he so much as shows his face in any chapter after this, mark my words. Hayden seizes the gate and the chapter's over with. [spoiler=Growths & Comments (Forde, Ewan, Vanessa, Natasha)]Forde's growths: Hp: 0% Luk: 45% Str: 45% Def: 0% Skl: 110% Res: 80% Spd: 0% Nope! Ewan's growths: Hp: 45% Luk: 20% Str: 0% Def: 0% Skl: 90% Res: 110% Spd: 25% Still nope! Vanessa's growths: Hp: 95% Luk: 100% Mag: 20% Def: 0% Skl: 0% Res: 15% Spd: 30% Probably the best unit I got out of this chapter if only for the prospective chance of turning her into a Summoner and letting her summon minions to do work for me. Natasha's growths: Hp: 25% Luk: 55% Str: 50% Def: 40% Skl: 80% Res: 100% Spd: 0% Nope once more!

Good to know I wasn't the only one getting that error then, heh. In fact, the error went away after ~15-20 minutes upon editing that post, but soon after that, I got suckered in to playing a game with a friend. I'll get part 2 of the update out tomorrow.

Time for an update! [spoiler=Ch10 Part 1: Four New Party Members Who All Probably Suck] Before getting into the chapter, Tethys uses that Angelic Robe I picked up last time. Perfect for my best combat unit right now. Did a little shopping on the world map to pick up a few things, namely a Restore & Unlock staff. Diving right into the next chapter, my highest priority is to save the three green army units located to the south. Thanks to having multiple Dancers, getting Rennac down there for some talking will be easy. Just need to get a path cleared for him in the first turn or two, a task Tethys gets to work on by cleaving a Fighter in two. Oh yeah, said kill gave her a level. Random ballista jerk, but Gerik's just fine. This guy's fine too, but it's a Mage with garbage for magic so it doesn't matter. Tethys also had like four enemies attack her. She still gives no fucks folks! With some Dancer help, Tethys is able to knock out three of the four Mercenaries. Still had one Dancer available so Amelia kills off one more Mercenary and uses her extra turn to throw a Javelin over to a pathetic Mage. Saleh has nothing better to do with only one actual damaging threat nearby (The Myrmidon) so he chucks a Javelin at another Mage. Speaking of that Myrmidon, he does double Saleh, but it's nowhere near enough to kill him. Saleh gets more strength from a level up. ...You know what sir, cap strength. Do it. Then I'll likely feed you Speedwings since you're basically my only half decent flying unit right now. A couple green army members decide they want to attack. Surprisingly, they are actually very smart, forming a wall so the Soldiers can't get past and reach the Shaman. There's an Archer on the way to a ballista near them though so I need to hurry and get them all to safety. Speaking of those green army units, might as well meet them. Forde's got enough bulk that he can survive a round of two of combat which is nice. A free Hero Crest will be good for the storage pile too. You know, somehow I find it appropriate that Saleh's pupil is also a flying winged monster, but the promoted version of it. With my luck though, he'll have garbage growths. At least he has lots of speed and defense on par with Forde so he should be just fine until I reach him. Nice goodies on him too. Also, remember I how said Mages have garbage magic? The one that attacked Ewan did 0 damage, even though he has all of 6 resistance. Welp, I couldn't hope for at least three semi-competent green army units. Her bases aren't that bad for her level, but the problem is everything except Mages & Soldiers more or less vastly outpace her. She'd have to be trained up in Valni to be viable...and that's assuming her growths are good to start with. Luckily here, she doesn't seem too keen on moving and getting herself killed which is good. Amelia kills off an Archer and makes sure to get out of the way of the two Dancers coming down. One of them is Rennac which means... All of those green army units are under my control now. Having so many Dancers is good here. Doing a little bit of tidying up at my base of operations. Once the team down south gets back up here, I'm going to park my ass in place until all of the reinforcements are dealt with. Also, Tethys got a Killer Axe from her kill. Fado & Saleh take out the Myrmidon with Saleh clearing reading up on the book of Rex because 2% crit chance for the win, yay. Since the Archer is closing in on the ballista in the south, I need to move quickly. That means Vanessa needs to risk her life by running with the rest of the gang. Luckily, she has a Nosferatu tome so the Soldiers shouldn't be able to kill her outright. Speaking of killing, this guy orders Marisa to go do killing. She's a lazy son of a bitch though. Which is why she gets her stunt double to do the dirty work for her. One Soldier felt like being a chucklefuck and blocking off a few of my units. Vanessa drains the last bit of life out of him for committing such a silly act. While that Archer bolting for the ballista is a concern, this guy here is likewise nasty for that Sleep staff. Dozla has my only Restore staff so the sooner the southern group links back up with the rest of my team, the better. Actual damaging physical units are coming up so Vanessa is quickly escorted to safety. Ewan likewise starts to retreat. More cleaning is occurring up by the rest of my team as we speak. Formed a bit of a defensive line here. Hopefully nobody dies. Luckily, nobody dies. Fado got doubled, but whatever, I have a healer. More Brigands on the way. Going to be parked where I'm at until they stop pouring in. Lots of things happen this turn. Hayden kills this Myrmidon, Saleh kills a Soldier, Fado offs a Brigand, Tethys & Innes double team and kill another Brigand, then... An extra turn granted to Tethys allows her to crit kill the only other Brigand in the immediate danger zone. At this point, I'm not doing very much. Just healing up my units and making sure everyone has at least one good weapon on them, even units I'm not sure will be very good going on from here like Forde. Until that event happens, it's all hands on deck. Another enemy phase goes by where nothing much of interest happens. Tethys continue to be the nightmare of the enemy team, killing or damn near killing everything that so much as looks at her funny. The Archer has finally made it to the ballista in the south and is beginning to take pot shots at Fado. He'll be fine though. Dozla continues to heal even the slightest of wounds. Easy experience, sure, but I can't afford to have anyone under max health when that event starts. Stop Press; Tethys Still Kicks Ass Tethys is close to breaking her first Killing Edge, but worry not because I have a spare ready to go for her. The Axereaver gives Amelia some pretty solid offense, allowing her to hit hard while having a fairly good chance to dodge the incoming axe counterattack. She's finishing off any Brigands that want to be cheeky and trying attacking from the east. Dozla's been on near non-stop healing duties. He gets rewarded with a good level simply because it contained more precious magic for him. Natasha is coming up on the western side of the base which is exactly what I wanted. Would have been a bit more annoying if she took the other way around. Anyways, since I want no distractions around, Tethys breaks out her Longbow and drops a rogue Archer with some help from her Dancer buddies. Since her guard duties in the west are over with for the time being, she gets yet another extra turn and comes over to the east, basically telling every enemy in a three mile radius to die. Like so! Of course, some enemies would still prefer to try going after Amelia. She doesn't care though. Nor does Forde. Since Natasha's close now... There, she's recruited. Now watch as none of the four new recruits this chapter have good growths, given my luck. Amelia & Tethys do a bit of cleanup to end part 1 of the update. Part 2 will be following soon. EDIT: Well, by following soon, I mean "Whenever imgur decides to unfuck itself and not throw error messages my way randomly when I'm trying to upload a new batch of pictures".

[spoiler=Ch9 Part 2: Just Cleaning Up the Port] Fado begins a new player phase by taking down the Pirate that attacked him. Innes takes a shot at dropping the Mercenary that attacked & doubled Amelia. He connects and the swordsman dies. Dozla patches up Amelia and picks up a solid level. More levels like this from you please, thank you. Good try, but no dice. Tethys is still swatting away some enemies. She caps defense and gets more strength on a level up. Fado backs off on the next player phase to get a Recover charge flung his way, then gets another turn from a Dancer to move near the water to the south. Amelia kills the silly Mage. Another enemy phase means more enemies finishing what they started with Tethys. Yet another Pirate, but this is the last one to worry about. Tethys goes all Captain Rex and digs even deeper into enemy hordes. There's maybe two or three enemies in that pic that can put some kind of dent in her hp to be honest. Innes kills off the weakened Pirate. Well, here's a bit of a silly moment. I sent Rennac & Gerik down to the southwest because I'm an idiot that thought Rennac could talk to the Knight down there to get him on our side. Turns out I was dead wrong. I think Hayden needed to do the deed here, but I don't have nearly enough time for him to fly down here. The duo then dance their way back to the team before the next enemy phase. Meanwhile, Tethys takes no damage fending off a horde of enemies. That includes the Sniper by the way. Just wait until I get Tethys something like a Killing Edge. Gods, she's gonna murder everything then. The Dancers back off some more as well. More of this from the next enemy phase. Oh, you think you're a funny guy eh Mage man? This guy gets it. Tethys is too much to handle and orders the Knight to retreat, then gets out himself before Amelia decides on another victim to be spear'd in the face. Just doing some cleanup of the rabble in the area. Amelia's kill nets an Elfire tome for the pile. Tethys gets some help from the Dancers to kill one Archer and severly wound another. Haha, nope. Amelia finishes off the Archer while Tethys moves a bit forward to lure in the Sniper. Once he's lured in, it's easy to surround and prime him up for a beatdown. Everyone that was close to a level takes some swings at the Sniper. Fado picks up some precious speed from his level up. Innes picks up some more magic. Hayden picks up some precious speed. Innes then kills off the Sniper and breaks his Elfire tome. Good thing I have a fresh one ready for him to use. Dozla patches up Tethys. This is the first time she's getting healed since this chapter began by the way. Tethys lures in another annoying enemy. She continues to wear him down with help from the Dancers, picking up a level in the process. Innes comes in to finish the job and get a Killing Edge for the pile. A few turns later, Innes and a few others are down south clearing out a path to the boss. Innes picks up this level which caps his speed upon slaying a Fighter. Innes doesn't have the best defense so Dozla's right there to make sure he stays healthy. More speed for Dozla is nice. A couple Soldiers suicide into Innes. The one with the Axereaver drops it upon his death. Tethys continues to murder everything. I'd like to note that Tethys started this chapter at D-Swords. Here's hoping for a Brave Sword soon! Amelia even gets a couple turns of murdering things herself. Eventually, she reaches the boss's flunkies and weakens one of them to hit lv20. Now, if a certain dumbass Thief boss didn't decide to magically spawn a Lockpick in his inventory and deny me a Knight Crest, she could've promoted now. After doing some last minute mopping up, it's time to kill the boss. He's so very very screwed. He's a flying enemy and, well... I believe he's about to die, wouldn't you all agree? And there he goes! Awesome way to end the chapter I must say. [spoiler=Growths & Comments (Rennac, Ross)]Rennac's growths: Hp: 0% Luk: 25% Str: 80% Def: 80% Skl: 65% Res: 0% Spd: 30% Another Dancer. God I'm just raking in that class, aren't I? Ross's growths: Hp: 0% Luk: 50% Str: 20% Def: 90% Skl: 15% Res: 25% Spd: 65% Yeah, I didn't pick him up in this chapter, but I already have a dedicated Knight in my ranks. Also, those growths pretty much resign him to the bench the moment I pick him up in a future chapter.

Quick update here since I dived into Valni for a bit of training. [spoiler=Ch9 Part 1: Valni Training & ANOTHER DANCER REALLY GAME ?!?] Took a few rounds in Valni to get some of my units trained up a bit. The Entombed that can appear on the 1st floor have some pretty high offensive stats that I need to watch out for whenever they appear. Got a Gwyllgi as my floor 1 boss. Meh, whatever. It never moves so I can always outrange it. Amelia picked up four levels during my stay here. She capped skill, picked up a couple points of speed, and a point of luck & defense. Innes gets exactly what he's looking for right now which is plenty of magic & speed. Surprise skill boost also! Dozla only got one level while doing some light healing duties, but it has magic so it's good for him. Tethys caps her skill and gets some strength & luck on the side too. Also, she hit lv20 which means... She gets a kick ass promotion to Ranger. The stat gains are nice (1 point away from her defense cap which she will hit) and she has 7 move, but more importantly...she's my first sword user that doesn't suck. All she really needs at this point is an Angelic Robe to give her some more hp. Got a few good weapons during my runs here. Tethys is going to get some damned good mileage out of all of them, especially the swords once she gets the weapon rank to use them (She needs C-Swords at a minimum to use them). With my preparations in place, it's time to go into chapter 9 of Eirika's Hayden's route and...oh for the love of god another Dancer. I COULD USE A THIEF RIGHT ABOUT NOW THANKS GAME! In any case, Rennac has one thing going for him...a frankly ABSURD amount of speed, meaning he can make as good of a dodge tank as Gerik, if not more so. Only 15 hp, but still, Dancers shouldn't be getting into combat unless the situation calls for it. Did some light preparation because Saleh's got a very important task to do in this chapter. You see, there are two villages to visit and I want to get the loot in each one before they are destroyed by Pirates. Said Pirates are about on par with Mercenaries stat wise, meaning fun times for me. One of those villages is across the water to Saleh's south. The other? To the south of this chucklefuck group of enemies, the likes of which features the first non-boss promoted enemy. I'm expecting ridiculous stats from this one. Called that. Promoted enemies are likely going to be causes for concern whenever they appear if their stats are as high as this one's is. The only saving grace here is that he's using only a 2 range weapon so I can just box him in and chip him down when I'm ready. Saleh's going to sit here and do some counterattacking with his Javelin. He's got some Elixirs because hoo boy is he going to need them. I just need to clear out or lure away the Archers & the Shaman/Mercenary duo, hopefully before the Pirates close in on the village. Rennac gives another turn to Gerik. You can probably guess what I'm going to do with these two. Well, that was easy, right? Well, yes, but there's a problem. See that Myrmidon near them? Yeah, that's a problem. One critical means the death of either Dancer. Hopefully boosting Rennac to lv20 will provide me with some insurance. Otherwise, I'm going to have to pray. Luckily, I don't have to pray as Rennac, despite not getting a drop of hp, capped speed, got some luck, and hit 19 defense, meaning he can eat one critical from the Myrmidon and still live. Sweet. I'm sure she would laugh seeing your new profession sir. Totally worth the journey out here. They'll be making their way back to the rest of the team on the next turn. Meanwhile, everyone that's remaining at the start is prepared to endure the first enemy phase. Tethys is waiting by the water to the south to intercept as many Pirates as she can. Finally some combat! Rennac decides to dodge which helps. Tethys flat up doesn't give a fuck being attacked by the Pirates. She can tank the damage quite well and deliver lots of pain in return, especially to the poor Pirate that had a Steel Axe equipped, causing him to get doubled & killed. Saleh doesn't kill anyone, but he does leave some wounds on those that attacked him. Tethys breaks in her shiny new Longbow to kill a Pirate nestled deep in the water zone. Hayden comes in to finish off the one Pirate that Tethys didn't double, picking up a level for himself and a free Ocean Seal in the process. He then gets some help from the Dancer trio to get out of range of the Pirate to the south. Saleh moves here and uses an Elixir. Random Archer gets killed by Amelia. As for that Pirate, he came up during the enemy phase that just passed (and one I didn't take any screenies in). Missed a Dancer, then got destroyed on the next player phase. Saleh also did some work during the last enemy phase to kill a couple enemies, then moved into the water and used another Elixir on this player phase. Well this is going to be a problem. Saleh gets doubled while having the Javelin equipped. This is going to be a bigger problem. All of those Pirates have Hand Axes and all of them can destroy that village to Saleh's southwest. While I was thinking about what to do there, I had Tethys shuttled up to the northwest. She's going to be tanking a horde of enemies approaching from that direction. Decided to move Saleh here. It's about all I can do right now. Picture this happening about 3-4 times to Tethys. Girl just tanks something fierce. On second thought, I may have had Saleh up one more square, don't remember precisely. I have him grab the reward from the village, then pray. If he's killed here, then I'll need to reset and try something a little different. I think I'm in business. Only one Pirate attacked Saleh here and he could eat the damage no trouble (And I'm inclined to believe that crap with Tethys tanking like a beast occurred here instead, but I don't remember. Kinda went all willy nilly with screenshot taking around this part). . Ok, I'm not crazy. Tethys did tank like a beast and is about to again. Fado's luring in one of the Pirates to the southwest. Still no fucks given by Tethys! So many enemies! There's also a Knight that I can recruit. Will be continued in part 2 of the update.

[spoiler=Ch8 Part 2: Amelia's Quest for Power] Want to take the right side up into the treasure room, meaning I'll need to burn one of my Door Keys to get through. In the meantime, Amelia finishes off the Shaman she started on at the end of the last update. Easy enough strategy for this room. Amelia attacks only if she's at full hp. If she's not, then Dozla heals her up. If she needs healing and Dozla just used up his turn, Duessel or Gerik can give him an extra turn. Amelia's levels from clearing out the entire room. Dozla picked up a couple as well. At this point, Amelia is just plodding along and killing everything she comes across. At this point, this Thief appears. Apparently this Thief is on the same wavelength as that one from The Last Promise. Wide open treasure room, treasure chest in range...nope, he wants to attack Amelia. I pull everyone as far back as I can, completely out of range of the Thief so he only has the chest to go for....nope, he still wants to kill my team. Well alright then, be my guest. Thanks for giving Amelia a level and capping her strength by the way. Business as usual for Amelia. I loaded up Gerik with some Door & Chest Keys for this chapter. One Door Key was used to open this shortcut into the treasure room and one Chest Key is about to be used for a very good cause. Definitely worth the Chest Key used. Amelia uses this right away on her next turn. Amelia resumes her quest to spear everything in the face and gets rewarded with a resistance cap. Three enemies here and they all die in the same way. Amelia picks up this level after slaying the Mage. Two enemies over here which she owns as well. As for the boss, he decided not to change class and barely change his stats around...AND even have weaker weapons to boot. This is going to be a slaughter for Amelia. Like so. Damn near an OHKO there with the Heavy Spear. So much for your General powers there sir. You are now about to die. Correction: You are now dead. Congrats! Before having Hayden come up to seize the throne and end the chapter, Kyle gets his entire inventory removed because fuck if I'm going to take the Ephraim route with his worthless behind. Hayden's not that much better due to low hp, def, and spd, but at least he's got lots of mag, skl, and res and the qualities of being a flyer to be happy with.

Might as well throw out another update here. [spoiler=Ch8 Part 1: The Return of the Idiot Swordsman] This chapter can be either hard or easy depending on who your 5x units are. Considering two of them are Kyle & Franz, neither of which are very combat capable right now, I need to clear a path for them quickly when they arrive. That's because on turn 5, a trio of Cavaliers will appear in the southwest which just so happens to be the point where Kyle & friends appear on the next turn. Myrmidons begin showing up here Basically Mercenaries, but with less strength and more hp. Saleh moves over to the Archer in the west, stabs it twice, then gets another turn from Duessel so he can move up one tile and finish him off with his Javelin. Now then, why would I bother risking a nasty counterattack to do that? My plan for shuttling some kind of help to the southwest, that's what. Compare where Duessel & Gerik are in these two pics. This is what I was mentioning before about having essentially infinite range with two Dancers in my party. They're down in the southwest and out of range of any enemies, ready to assist Kyle's group when they get here. Finishing off this player phase by having Amelia & Tethys easily mop the two Soldiers to the north. Everyone else sits where they are for now. Saleh comes under heavy fire from the Mercenary & Myrmidon. He got doubled by both of them, but he'll live. Meanwhile, Amelia doesn't give any fucks about a rogue Knight from the north. Ephraim's Kyle's group has arrived! Fado & Innes double team the rogue Knight and kill him off with Innes picking up a level from the kill. Tethys drops the Mercenary. Saleh rushes forward and uses an Elixir. He's going to be drawing some fire from three enemies on the next enemy phase (Well, two. Soldiers can't really harm him after all). Amelia does get doubled by the Myrmidon in the next enemy phase, but she manages to land her counterattack. An Archer decides to attack Franz. He might not be doing much damage, but he's in no danger right now since he has plenty of backup to rely on in the next player phase. Chalk up another Soldier that suicided into Saleh who gets a surprisingly damned good level. +2 hp and a str boost? I can get behind that. Saleh gets attacked by a Knight & Fighter this enemy phase too. The Knight survives obviously, but how about the Fighter? Nope! Myrmidon gets shot down by Tethys who caps defense from the level she gained. Dozla runs forward to patch up Saleh. Kyle hits the Archer. Shitty damage, but it's enough for Franz to kill him off with help from Duessel & Gerik. At this point, the worst the map has to offer is over with. Just a couple stragglers that need to be deal with on the next player phase before I move forward. Oh, by stragglers, I mean the Knight & Mage. The Soldier eats an OHKO counterattack to the face. The damage Innes is doing is slowly rising. Soon I shall have an actual magical nuking machine of doom. Amelia finishes off the Knight and picks up her first level since promotion. Not a bad way to start out. Yeah no, that's not going to happen sir. Oh yeah, the Cavalier trio has arrived. Too bad I can get Tethys down to box them in right now. Cavaliers are still pretty strong for the record. Not strong enough for Tethys though. Saleh adds another crit kill to his belt by sending the Mage to the afterlife. Tethys & Amelia basically shame the entire squadron of Cavaliers. As Amelia starts to chip down the final Cavalier, she picks up a level. More speed! And that's the last of them vile Cavaliers. Saleh lures in another Mercenary and gets...more strength? Two straight levels with strength on a 25% growth. Not bad! The Mercenary is lured over to Tethys where Amelia kills him off and picks up more speed. At this point, I'm just luring enemies in with Tethys so Amelia can kill them off for experience. Same thing I'm doing here is going to happen to the other three enemies so I'm just going to abridge things here. Someone not named Amelia gaining levels for once! And she's right back to gaining more levels! Innes had to take this kill since Amelia doesn't have quite enough strength yet to do it herself. Amelia resumes wrecking face now that the beefy Knight is out of the way. Just a bit more to cover, but I'll save that for part 2.

Funny thing...I actually decided on my route before seeing all the suggestions here, mostly because I knew what route I was going to take Tethys down once she could reach lv20. That being said, here's an update. [spoiler=Ch7: How A Randomized Boss Trolled Me] First thing's first...Amelia gets her promotion. I chose Knight simply because my plan is to promote Tethys to a Ranger and make her my primary sword user. I also played ahead and checked out Amelia's promotion to General or Great Knight. Both have 6 move at least so I'll be good to go there when she reaches that point. Of course, that's all in the future. For now, I get to deal with a chapter that's pretty damned easy compared to the last two. No reinforcements, no requiring some very clever strategies to get past a turn or two. Going to try grinding up a couple of my units. Gerik makes for a surprisingly good walling unit given his decent hp & defense scores. That or the Soldiers just suck in combat right now, that too. Innes will be getting some training done here. With Gerik blocking the bridge, he can provide him with extra turns and speed up the killing of the lowly Soldiers. Meanwhile, a weaponless Fado is holding off the only two enemies in the forests to the north, a Fighter & Mage. Tethys shoots down the Fighter. She does get another turn from Duessel to shoot the Mage, but one of her shots missed. However, once the next player phase came around, she was able to kill off the Archer and get a level along with some Pure Water. Innes finally kills that Soldier he's been firing away on since the start of the chapter. A Fighter came crawling up after the Soldier went down, but he ate some ranged artillery and died almost instantly. Innes picks up a level after delivering the finishing blow. Since there's a Mage at the bridge presently, Gerik swaps out for Duessel. Congrats, the Mage can't do any damage now! More ranged artillery brings down the Mage. Tethys begins spending the next few turns using the Ballista to the north. Take note that this Mage has an Energy Ring, but because the game hasn't provided me with a Thief, I can't steal it sadly. By the time the Ballista runs out of ammo, Tethys picks up another level and caps her speed as expected. Defense will likely follow well before she hits lv20. A couple more turns pass and Tethys finally crosses the bridge I've been guarding so she can lure in another Soldier. Still no luck in seeing them do anything of note though. The usual plan occurs. Innes walks up and starts bombing the poor Soldier with some extra turn granting to help him out. Innes grabs another level shortly before the inevitable death of yet another failure of a Soldier. Tethys lures in another enemy, Innes does his thing again. Yeah, this chapter's pretty boring and easy right now. R.I.P Energy Ring. The game hasn't provided me with a Thief yet and probably won't until the ass end of the game when it's no longer relevant. More luring in enemies! More magic for Innes! See those two Mercenaries? They're the only super damaging enemies on this chapter before the boss. Hayden gets an extra turn so he can get out of murder range. Tethys heals herself up before going to lure out one of the Mercenaries. Not that she really needed the healing though. Innes needed only one extra turn granted to him to land the killing blow here and pick up more magic. More luring, more weakened enemies for Innes to kill. You missed nothing for a couple turns other than Tethys healing herself, then going solo to the northeast to do some ventilation of a couple rats. Also, those two Archers by the boss? Both of them are dead now. As for the boss? Oh for the love of....FUUUUUUU!!!!! The fucker is a Thief and added a Lockpick to his inventory, thereby denying me his Knight Crest drop. What a dick. Oh, and I can outrange his ass because he never moves. That too. Yeah, the boss has good evasion, but with both my Dancers up here now and Tethys able to double the boss each turn, he'll go down soon enough. Oh wow, I wasn't expecting that. Sadly, the Vulnerary he stole only had 1 use left so the joke is on him. Also, he just lost his gate bonuses. That means he dies after he burns that 1 use Vulnerary. Yup, she's definitely capping her defense before lv20. That should have been a Knight Crest so spork you Murray. Thanks for trolling me and goodbye as Hayden comes up to seize the gate. Chapter 8 should have some actual challenge to it at least. That'll come next time.

[spoiler=Ch6 Part 2: Goddamned Fog of War II] Saleh now needs to make haste over to the green army villagers. He moves east, uses an Elixir, then gets another turn from Gerik so he can move further east. Tethys & Colm weaken the last Cavalier on the map, the latter of which picking up a level for himself. Now, you may be wondering why I'm fielding Amelia, despite being told she doesn't promote properly at lv10. Since the mechanic is broken for her, I only feel it's fair to feed her a Master Seal after she hits lv10. Besides, if she wants to keep getting levels like that, then hell yes I want to use her because that means I might finally have a reliable sword user (Kyle sucks, he doesn't count). Fado uses a Vulnerary, just in case I need him to tank near the end here. An extra turn granted by Duessel allows Tethys to shoot down the Troubadour. Here's why Saleh's going to save the day. A big ass spider is about to cause sadness for some green army units, but he's going to intercept it before that happens. Gerik easily dodges two attacks sent his way while Duessel takes a hit from the Archer. Whatever because that Archer ain't surviving the next turn. Much like how the big ass spider doesn't get to see the next enemy phase. Wouldn't have even mattered if Saleh missed any hits. Due to being in the mountains, the spider can only move a maximum of one tile, meaning Saleh could just shift over in the direction it went and keep blocking it until it dies. Hayden manages to connect this time, allowing Amelia to rake in some sweet experience by finishing the Archer off. Duessel gives Amelia another turn so she can get out of the impending enemies about to invade on the next enemy phase. Fado heals up a bit more. Gerik still dodges everything. Tethys shoots down the Soldier and levels up. Innes & Hayden blow up the remaining Knight. At this point, the chapter is effectively won as the rest of the enemies can be lured out and killed one at a time. I suppose this is important as well. Moving to the north, a random Mage tries to hit Gerik, but fails. He's then promptly removed from the map by Hayden & Amelia, the latter picking up a good level simply because it has speed. Saleh uses another charge of his Torch to light up the area, revealing a Priest that Amelia can stab for the next few turns. Yet another Soldier suicides into Saleh. Amelia finishes off the Priest for another level, leaving only the boss to deal with. Good thing this guy doesn't move because he'd be a royal pain in the ass to deal with. As such, Amelia's going to chuck Javelins his way until she hits lv10. Like so. Hayden takes some pot shots at the boss as well to pick up a level with some precious hp in it. Lute even gets in on the leveling thanks to swiping the Crimson Eye from Hayden for a moment. Tethys then begins to fill the boss full of arrows until he falls over and dies. She picks up a level for her efforts. She also now has her promotion item ready when she hits lv20. Now, to decide on what promotion route to take Amelia down. Cavalier would give me access to a sword user finally while Knight, while locking her to spears only, would reward her with a chance to become a General down the line. Tough call actually.

Fog of War? Fog of War! [spoiler=Ch6 Part 1: Goddamned Fog of War I] Welcome to the first Fog of War chapter. Considering I don't have multiple godlike units fielded here, I'm going to have to be extra careful as enemies could gank me out of the blue if I'm not careful. Saleh's going to be one of my most important units for this chapter. He's going to be luring in as many enemies as possible and killing as many as he can. He starts by flying just to the southwest of the fort and using one of his Torch stick charges. Everyone else shuffles southeast with Fado taking up residence in a forest. Anything that doesn't want to or can't go after Saleh will crash into him and either die or get hit really hard. Now, here's an advantage of having two Dancers on my team. Since one can grant the other an extra turn, I effectively have infinite range, able to reach any point in a map in the span of one turn. Could be very useful in some situations. That being said, I think it's time to bring both my Dancers up to lv20 for some extra bulk. Duessel got a ton of luck & resistance plus a bit of speed & defense which helps. However, Gerik fared much better simply by having high speed and a decent amount of hp & defense. He could tank a couple hits if the situation calls for it during this chapter. Duessel & Gerik get as close to the enemy's range without actually being in it, then Gerik ends the first player phase by using one of his Vulneraries to top off. Saleh gets attacked by at least four enemies. He easily rips up the Soldier and leaves a nasty wound on the Mercenary. Knights are tanky bitches though that'll require some magical muscle to easily bring down. Whatever didn't go after Saleh went after Fado. He racks up a couple kills himself this enemy phase, including one Fighter who ate a critical and died several times over. See these green army units? If all three survive to the end of the chapter, I'll get a special prize. Saleh's going to have some very important work to do in order to save these villagers in a few turns. Hayden & Saleh wipe out a couple of the weakened enemies from the enemy phase. Saleh picks up a level from his kill as well as an Iron Blade that dropped from the Mercenary. Another weakened enemy takes an arrow to the face courtesy of Tethys, granting her a level. Fado goes ahead and drops the only other Knight in the nearby area. Gerik gives Hayden another turn. Despite the odds, I'm going to see if he can kill the Mercenary. If he does, great. If not, he's got enough people in front of him to keep himself well protected from the enemy. Hayden's first hit whiffs, but another turn provided by Duessel allows him to try again. He lands the killing blow this time and picks up a level. Nothing happened at all on the next enemy phase, but this next player phase is very important. I need to get setup for a nasty wave of enemies coming my way next turn. Fado decides to slink out into the plains and uses a Vulnerary. The first half of the nasty wave of enemies begins approaching from the north and east as a pair of Fighters assault Saleh. He's awesome and dodges the one hit that might have been a bit annoying to deal with due to poison and kills the jerk holding a Halberd, gaining his unequipped Iron Axe to put into the pile. When I meant nasty enemies, I didn't include another failed attempt by a Soldier to do any damage to Saleh who then got speared in the face twice and killed by Saleh. And here we go. Near Fado are three Cavaliers, one of them still in the fog currently. Near Saleh are the weakened Fighter and two Cavaliers with an extra Cavalier, Troubadour, and Archer hidden in the fog to the north. Stats of the two visible Cavaliers near Fado. These dingbats do not fuck around, that's for sure. Fado & Saleh both heal up. They're both going to be coming under some heavy fire on the next enemy phase. Hayden blows away the weakened Fighter, then is give another turn by Gerik to get out of the impending murder zone. The first clash of the next enemy turn has a Cavalier whiffing a hit on Saleh. Saleh responds by smacking the dingbat twice and leveling up. Another Cavalier also whiffs a hit on Gerik. Two Cavaliers strike Fado. Good thing he was at full hp as that 10 hp he has now is after only two hits. Amazingly, the Archer whiffs an 81% chance to hit on Saleh. Too bad the damage from the counterattacks got undone instantly. Quite a few enemies that need to go down this turn. Tethys begins by shooting down one of Fado's attackers. Hayden weakens one of the Cavaliers near Saleh. Fado kills the other Cavalier that attacked him while Lute finishes off the Cavalier that Hayden attacked. Saleh adds Cavalier #4 to the death list with a couple spear strikes. Another turn granted by Gerik allows Saleh to strike down the other Cavalier near him. Only one of them still breathes and he can only target either Fado or Tethys on the next turn, both of whom can take the hit. Duessel gives Hayden another turn so he can get out of range of the Archer. Finally, Innes throws down some magic against the Archer for light damage. Fado & Saleh take some nasty hits on the next phase with Fado even missing his counterattack. Both of them will be fine though. Part 2 should be coming very soon.