Go Go Rally Rangers!

[Alastor15243]

Alright, I just completed my latest playthrough, and I've had this idea for another playthrough for a while and I think I'm finally gonna do it.

I call it "Rally Rangers"

Essentially I play through the entire game using only the following units:

Rally Red: Vaike

Rally Blue: Miriel

Rally Light Blue: Kellam (I swear to god I actually forgot about him until more than halfway through writing this post).

Rally Yellow: Lissa

Rally Green: Sumia

Rally Black: Cordelia

Rally Orange: Virion (Really torn between him and Gregor. Virion comes first, fitting the theme, but Orange? Least fitting color for that guy ever)

Rally Violet: Maribelle

Rally Pink: Olivia (will exploit Chrom once he reaches level 20 to use golden gaffe to hire an einherjar to beat SB2 for me)

Rally Rainbow/Silver/All/Name Pending: My Unit.

The Giant Robot: Chrom.

The rules are as follows:

*Play on hard mode

*No pairup

*No brave weapons

*No DLC

*No grinding

*No einherjar

*No using any units other than the ones listed above in any mission.

*Except for Chrom, no unit can use second seals until they've obtained their namesake rally, and the promoted classes that offer these rallies are banned to all other units besides the one designated to that rally.

This brave, passionate, and incredibly silly team will start a campaign of justice against the forces of evil! Each possessing the power to sacrifice their turn to empower their allies with one of the statistical virtues! Strength! Magic! Speed! Skill! Luck! Defense! Resistance! Movement! Heart (Which is way less lame than it sounds)! And their leader, My Unit, with the power of the entire spectrum! And when things get super duper dire, they can use all their rallies in one turn to form the CHROM THE GREAT LZORD, who by all their powers combined, is an absolute badass!

Basically I made extensive use of rallies in my last run, and I'm wondering what it would be like to assemble a team composed entirely of units making up the whole rally range. This is gonna be tough, because the other thing I made a lot of use of in my last run was galeforce, and this team setup (and ruleset) means only Cordelia will have that skill. But I'm not gonna let that stop me from doing my best! Go Go Rally Rangers!

If anybody has any advice for me, I'd welcome it. Also, lemme know if you'd like for me to do a writeup of how each chapter went as I go.

Edited May 20, 2015 by Alastor15243

[Czar_Yoshi]

If you really want a Wedding Bouquet without touching your funds at all...

Streetpass yourself a lone, unequipped Avatar with 50+ Lck and AT. Fight it with a Lv.20 Chrom (no experience from Lv.20, no weapon damage from Falchion), and then use it with something strong to solo SB2 with an unequipped Chrom supporting.

If you can't Streetpass yourself and/or don't want to do that with Chrom, recruit a similar 100% AT character from the Logbook, make sure their price is a multiple of 1000, and keep retrying SB2 until they get exactly that much money from Leif's Blade/Despoil. Or have them do a different DLC map if more needs to be made up.

[Alastor15243]

If you really want a Wedding Bouquet without touching your funds at all...

Streetpass yourself a lone, unequipped Avatar with 50+ Lck and AT. Fight it with a Lv.20 Chrom (no experience from Lv.20, no weapon damage from Falchion), and then use it with something strong to solo SB2 with an unequipped Chrom supporting.

If you can't Streetpass yourself and/or don't want to do that with Chrom, recruit a similar 100% AT character from the Logbook, make sure their price is a multiple of 1000, and keep retrying SB2 until they get exactly that much money from Leif's Blade/Despoil. Or have them do a different DLC map if more needs to be made up.

Hm... what's the general value of a logbook unit capable of soloing SB2? I'm considering waiting until Chrom reaches level 20 and then having him repeatedly solo golden gaffe, carefully getting the right amount of gold to buy such a logbook unit, then giving him some cheap equipment to solo the map with.

[Czar_Yoshi]

Expenses from partially used cheap equipment are really hard to track. 100% AT or bust (or Falchion on Marth).

I haven't done SB in literally forever so I don't remember how much you'll need for it.

[Alastor15243]

Expenses from partially used cheap equipment are really hard to track. 100% AT or bust (or Falchion on Marth).

I haven't done SB in literally forever so I don't remember how much you'll need for it.

No I'm saying I'd get some equipment and say "screw it, that's the price of the reclass item".

[Sentacotus]

This is actually a pretty funny idea. I might have to try this someday. Maybe the next Power Rangers should be based on this.

[Alastor15243]

Alright, let's get this party started!

So I’m starting this campaign by picking my avatar. I’m choosing a male avatar, Build 1, Face 4, Hair 3, Hair color 2, Voice Male 3.

Name: Henshin (seems appropriate)
Birthday: August 28.
Asset: Defense (Gonna need a few tanks on this run, and at any rate the most important rallier has to be able to take some hits)
Flaw: Luck (Because I won’t be using armsthrift and this way Lissa feels like her rally’s useful)

Skipping discussion of the premonition because why.

PROLOGUE

Our hero, Henshin, wakes up in an open field with no memory, like ya do, and is greeted by three unfamiliar faces.

Henshin: Ungggh…

Frederick: Ah, He’s awake. Excellent.

Henshin: Where am I? Who am I?

Frederick: And has amnesia. Not so excellent. But we can make do.

Lissa: Oh nog, this is just one of those days, isn’t it? He has amnesia, I discover my big brother’s actually a friendship-powered robot…

Chromzord: (Metallic sounding voice) Are you alright?

Lissa: He means apart from the whole amnesia thing. He’s a bit… thick.

Henshin: I… I guess. Who are you people?

Frederick: I am Frederick, servant of Emmeryn, who is the avatar of Naga, the source of all that is good in the world. And you, my friend, are Rally Silver, the destined leader of the Rally Rangers, the saviors of the universe and the sworn enemy of the Shadowy Forces of General Unpleasantness!

Henshin: …

Chromzord: …

Lissa: …

Frederick: …

Henshin: I’m sorry, WHAT!?

Frederick: I said-

Henshin: This is some sick joke, right? You see a poor guy with amnesia lying in a field and decide to screw with him? The Shadowy what? Rally WHAT?

Frederick: You are the first and most powerful member of the Rally Rangers, ten warriors of virtue and valor who will save the world from darkness and evil and stuff! This is Lissa, Rally Yellow, and this is Chromzord, our friendship powered robot who will one day become our organization’s ultimate weapon of justice!

Lissa: Sup?

Chromzord: Yo.

Henshin: Alright. That’s… nice. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go look for a couple of people who AREN’T completely batshit insane.

(Bolts off)

Frederick: NO! COME BACK! DO NOT SHIRK YOUR DESTINY! …Pretty please?

Alas, our hero found there was no shirking of destiny, for the call of justice and the call of adventure come from persistent little bastards of fates, more persistant than the most homicide-inducingly-annoying of telemarketers, and without even a do-not-call list for them to ignore. For as he got to town to find some sane people, he soon realized there was something off about it. Something very, VERY off. In that it was on fire.

Henshin: Oh for crying out-

Garrick: BWAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I, GARRICK, SERGEANT UNDER GENERAL GANGREL OF THE SHADOWY FORCES OF GENERAL UNPLEASANTNESS, DO HEREBY DECLARE WAR ON NON-FLAMMABLE SUBSTANCES! FIRE! FIRE! FIIIIIIIIRE!

Henshin: …What.

(Frederick, Rally Yellow and Chromzord arrive)

Frederick: We’re here! But it’s totally not because we’re stalking you! It’s absolutely, definitively, and positively about the fire!

Henshin: Right, I get it.

Chromzord: You believe we aren’t crazy?

Henshin: No, I believe you’re right.

Frederick: Excellent! Then let our grand journey begin!

Chromzord: Prepare to fall at the hands of my hand-possessing blade!

Lissa: Prepare to have your efforts to hurt the righteous thwarted by my trusty staff!

Henshin: Prepare… to… die… I guess?

Frederick: Prepare for me to… stare at you uncomfortably! YES!

(Henshin looks at him)

Henshin: You’re not fighting!?

Frederick: Oh, certainly not!

Henshin: But you’ve got that fancy armor and that huge expensive spear!

Frederick: Can’t help you, I’m afraid, forbidden by destiny for non-rangers to interfere with the business of the Rally Rangers! In fact, if I or any other non-ranger were to so much as bump into one of these guys, I fear the universe would explode!

Henshin: …Ugh. Fine. Get in the back.



And so the battle begins. Heeding Frederick’s warning, I form a two-man barricade between the two lowermost abandoned fruitstands with Chromzord and Henshin, being sure to zap the nearby myrmidon with thunder while I’m there, and I hide Lissa and Frederick behind it. The enemy phase goes well, with the myrmidon falling to Henshin thanks to a helpful dual strike from Chromzord, and the nearby barbarian is now one sword swipe from Chromzord away from defeat. The barbarian falls next turn, the other barbarian is wounded by lightning, and Lissa gets her first experience healing Chromzord.

In the end the first wave falls and I get an excellent level up for Henshin: HP, Mag, Skill, Spd and Def all go up. I have to remember to ration my heals, so I’m not going nuts with Lissa’s staff despite my desire to milk the xp as much as I can. I have to remember that that staff has to last me four chapters of increasing difficulty. Lissa got staff experience from the first event tile.

For the second wave, I have Henshin and Chromzord wade into it, with Henshin, who now has a 2 def and 3 res advantage over Chromzord, being in front, placed into the range of both the mage and the left myrmidon and armed with thunder. DS activates on the mage but not the myrmidon, and Chromzord gets his first level up: HP, Str, Skill, Spd, Def. Man these are some great level ups. I hope nothing bad happens to ruin them. the power of teamwork prevails and the second wave is defeated.

All that remains is the boss, and to my alarm I realize that Henshin only has 2 luck, meaning that even with surround support bonuses, Garrick STILL has a chance to critical Henshin. That… is a problem.

…But then I remember that Henshin is a tank who would only take like 4 damage from a normal attack anyway and can easily survive a critical hit. Crisis averted. Preparing to take down Garrick.

Second event tile nets me a miniature lance. Might prove useful one day.

Henshin vanquishes Garrick and gets his second level up: Skill, Lck, Def, Res. Not s all-around great as the last one, but hey, I needed a bit of Luck and Resistance.

CHAPTER COMPLETE!

Henshin: Well… that was… interesting.

Frederick: Excellently done, Rally Silver! You led us to a resounding victory! Evildoers everywhere stand no chance! And well done to you too, Rally Yellow and Chromzord!

Lissa: VICTORY!

Chrom: Hurray!

Henshin: Oh dear lord. Fine. I guess I’ll go with you. Not like I’ve anywhere else to go.

Frederick: That’s the spirit! Onwards to Ylisstol to meet Lady Emmeryn!

…Right, so there goes the prologue. I’ll post more later.

Edited May 20, 2015 by Alastor15243

[Ownagepuffs]

This is pretty cool

[Alastor15243]

CHAPTER 1

Night falls, and our heroes decide to make camp. When suddenly, THE FOREST EXPLODES!

Henshin: What’s going on!?

Frederick: Gods have mercy! It’s the Risen! Undead servants of the lord of darkness, Grima!

Henshin: Right. So they’re bad.

Frederick: Good Heavens, yes!

Henshin: Gotcha.

…Okay, here’s my plan for the near future: last time I did a no pair up run, I found myself unequipping frederick and having him distract a good portion of the enemy in chapter 2 for a VERY long time. The rules of this run mean I can’t do that, which means that Henshin’s my best bet for keeping the hordes at bay. His defense is pretty great, but not yet at frederick level. In short, he’s got some training to do, and I’m hoping to accomplish it this level. He’s currently at 10 Defense. If I can get him a point or two more, load him with all of my healing items, and then get him on a forest or, fates willing, a fortress, then he’ll be good to distract the horde while my remaining team picks them off.

So I put Henshin on the left fort and Chromzord on the lower one, with Henshin holding his bronze sword. The event tile boosts Chromzord’s weapon rank just enough to reach D. Frederick and Lissa stay close by but out of enemy range.

Turn 2, and who should arrive but…

Virion: Forces of evil beware, for the noble archest archer of justice has arrived to lay waste to the enemies of good! For I am… Rally… Ehm… Frederick… what color Rally was I again?

Frederick: Orange.

Virion: …Pardón?

Frederick: You are Rally Orange.

Virion: ORANGE!?

Frederick: Yes, Orange.

Virion: DO I LOOK LIKE AN ORANGE SORT OF PERSON TO YOU? Orange is fiery and impulsive and without a shred of dignity! It’s a yellower red! Surely destiny would not choose to allot me such an abysmal color! Look upon my noble visiage! Surely I am a blue, or at least a regal purple!

Frederick: The prophecies do not lie, Rally Orange. That is your monicker.

Virion: (utterly deadpan) Very well. Villains, prepare to be smited at the hands of… (deep breath) rally orange.

Sully: Aw, yeah! So what does that make me, Rally Red?

Frederick: Nope, sorry.

Sully: …Aw, hell, don’t tell me I’m Rally Pink, you sexist pile of sh-

Frederick: You’re not. You’re not a Rally Ranger. Now please join me in standing aside while the warriors of justice do battle, for should you touch the enemy even for a moment, the universe would explode!

Sully: But-

Frederick: EXPLODE I SAY!

Sully: ARGH! FINE! I’LL SIT IN THE GODDAMNED SIDELINES! HAPPY!?

I’ll be honest: I pretty much never use Virion. Sometimes in no-pair-up runs I’ve used him sparingly in the first couple of chapters for some free damage to melee fighters, but never beyond that. This will be my first time seriously using Virion for anything other than breeding. Fingers crossed.

Anyway, I figure Chromzord, with his slightly inferior defense, might attract more enemy attention if he stays where he is, and right now I’m training Henshin, so I have him retreat to northeast next to Frederick and Lissa, hoping it only attracts the wounded fighter. Sully and Virion also retreat. Virion will attack stray units at every single opportunity, but obviously he’ll be swarmed if I put him in enemy range. Henshin stays where he is, equipping the thunder tome in preparation for the incoming archer.

As predicted, the wounded fighter attacks Chromzord. They exchange successful blows, and the fighter dies. Chromzord gets another level up: HP, Str, Skill, Spd, Def. Excellent. Maybe he’ll attract less enemy attention this way.

Evidently not. The mercenary ignores Henshin in favor of Chromzord. Once again, successful blows are exchanged, and once again, this results in the mercenary’s death.

Realizing nobody’s going to attack Henshin when the very slightly squishier Chromzord is around, I retreat Chromzord as far to the northeast as I can and have Lissa heal him for her first level up, which gets everything but magic. Sweeeeeet. I really hope Henshin doesn’t get level ups so bad as to merit restarting.

One of the mercenaries broke off from the pack and seems like he’s going to attack the northeast retreat brigade instead of Henshin. No big deal, I’ll just keep him away from frederick and have Chromzord and Virion take them out.

Enemies swarm their now only option, Henshin, and do pathetic amounts of damage. Henshin levels up: HP, Spd, Lck, Def. Excellent, not a single level up so far has been without a defense increase. I think we’re in the clear here.

So now on the fortress Henshin’s pretty much invincible, so I have him attack the archer, who attacked me from the northeast and thus is now in danger of chasing after my party. 70% shot. Succeeds. I prepare the rest of the group to confront the straggler mercenary, who falls during the enemy phase from Chromzord’s counterattack and Virion’s lucky Dual Strike.

Henshin levels up again fighting the boss. HP, Mag, Lck, Def (bringing it up to TWELVE), Res. Excellent level ups in this chapter. Now all that’s left is to send in the group to deliver the necessary healing items to Henshin and take out the boss together.

Boss attacks Virion, but Henshin dual guards. And then he dual guards AGAIN for Chromzord as he tries to whittle the enemy’s HP down while Virion goes for the event tile (weapon experience up)

The boss predictably goes after Lissa and I finish him off with Virion.

CHAPTER COMPLETE!

Our heroes now move on to Ylisstol. They stand before Lady Emmeryn and all (except Henshin) kneel before her.

Emmeryn: Frederick, you have returned!

Frederick: Yes, milady, and I have found Rally Silver and Orange, as you predicted.

Emmeryn: Excellent, and not a moment too soon! Grima and the SFGU have begun their assault on goodliness! We only have three of the ten Rally Rangers! We must gather the remaining seven post-haste, or the world shall fall into eternal darkness! We march for Regna Ferox, where you will encounter most of the remaining Rally Rangers! You march at dawn! Any questions?

Henshin: Yeah… uh, I guess I have one… Why doesn’t your voice match up to your lips?

(dead silence)

Exalt’s guard: KILL THE HERETIC!

Emmeryn: PEACE! That is all. Goodnight, and good luck to you all!

So there ends chapter 1, and I go to the world map to find I have a support conversation between Henshin and Chromzord. Excellent! On to chapter 2!

...I'll be honest, writing these cutscenes is more annoying and less fun than I thought it would be. I find myself having much more fun actually playing the chapters. Maybe I should abandon the cutscenes? But it feels so... crucial...

Edited May 21, 2015 by Alastor15243

[Ownagepuffs]

Abandon them if you're not feeling them.

[eclipse]

I can write them!

Glad to see more story-runs! Kinda bummed that Libra isn't in this, but it can't be helped!

[Sunwoo]

I can write them!

Glad to see more story-runs! Kinda bummed that Libra isn't in this, but it can't be helped!

But eclipse wouldn't you just make all the bad guys win, seeing as you are Apopeclipse the enemy of the Folgore Rangers?

I think this is an interesting enough idea, the dialogue is also fun, but do what you want.

[Alastor15243]

Alright, I've decided to keep giving the cutscenes a shot. Here's chapter 2!

CHAPTER 2

Elsewhere, on the moon, Grima, Gangrel, Walhart, Aversa and Validar stand in a dark, shadowy room.

Grima: So commences today’s assembly of Grima and the four generals of the Shadowy Forces of General Unpleasantness! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA! …What’s on today’s agenda?

Aversa: If I may, your dashing malevolence, I would like to begin with my report with regards to spreading chaos and despair across the land.

Grima: Ah. Yes. That. …So how’s that been going?

Aversa: Well… for ONE… I’ve gotten my hands on THIS outfit, which my tailor assures me corrodes public order and sows the seeds of chaos simply by me wearing it in public. But beyond that, I have also pantsed innumerable people, toilet papered 57 houses, and chucked one old lady’s cat up through her second-story window. From the ground!

Grima: That… is quite impressive. Anyone care to top that?

Walhart: I HAVE USED A MEGAPHONE AND SHOUTED LOUD OBSCENITIES THROUGH MY PHONE SPEAKER AT NUMBERS DIALED AT RANDOM!

Grima: Excellent! Who else?

Gangrel: I put salt on peoples’ mattresses!

Grima: PERFECT!

Validar: I slaughtered 47 innocents and bathed in their blood!

(Dead silence)

Grima: …Good lord, 47?

Validar: I started with just 5, but you’d be amazed how many people you have to drain to fill a simple bathtub with blood.

Grima: …Moving on! The only problem… is that the latest generation of those ACCURSED RALLY RANGERS has begun to assemble once more! Rally Silver, Rally Yellow and Rally Orange are already united, and they now seek out the remaining seven.

Gangrel: THEY! MUST! NOT! SUCCEED!

Grima: Excellent enthusiasm, Gangrel! Which is why I’m putting YOU in charge of ending them! Take control of the 17th risen batallion and EXTERMINATE THOSE ACCURSED RALLY RANGERS!

Back on the road to Regna Ferox…

Vaike: The Vaike will have satisfaction! The Vaike will have justice! The Vaike will have vengeance for his fallen friend! YOU MONSTERS! HOW COULD YOU DO THAT TO VALERIE!?

(the team arrives)

Henshin: Oh gods, have the risen already started killing people? …But I don’t see any bodies…

Vaike: Oh you don’t, do you? Look closer! On the ground, at that barbarian’s feet!

Henshin: All… all I see… (Facepalms) oh god, don’t tell me…

Vaike: Valerie, The Vaike’s trusty axe! Valierie and The Vaike had been through everything together! And they destroyed her! …Well, more like she broke when The Vaike killed one of them, BUT STILL! GRRR! NO MATTER! The Vaike will have revenge if he has to beat you all to a rotting undead pulp with his bare hands!

Frederick: Such passion! Such courage! Such unparallelled stupidity! YES! IT’S HIM! IT’S RALLY RED!

Vaike: Get The Vaike another axe to slaughter these things with and you can call him whatever you like!

And now we get The Vaike. Another character I haven’t really seriously used much, but I’ve used him a bit, and I liked what I saw. Anyway, he’s gonna be one of the highest training priorities, in that the constraints of this run actually mean I can’t deploy any drop-in thieves (debating this). So I need to get him trained up to get his rally and then IMMEDIATELY reclass him to a thief so he can have locktouch. Treasure and funds will likely be limited before this point. I’ll have to rely on ambushing thieves right after they steal stuff. But the plus side is that once Vaike gets locktouch, I’ll have a lock opener who doesn’t have to worry about getting slaughtered by ambushes (any more than the other characters have to worry about that anyway). Kellam’s another option, but if my last playthrough is anything to go by, turning my tank into a thief temporarily is gonna be a much bigger problem than turning my powerhouse into one.

I look at the damage potential of nearby enemies. Henshin’s gonna be taking more damage per turn than I would like, 4-3 from each attack, so I’ll have to be quick about luring the enemies off his back. But armed with all of my recovery items, I think he’ll manage before he has to resort to elixir charges. Let’s test that. I unequip him and move him so that he’s 2 spaces east of the mercenary. I’m hoping this will let Henshin run to the forest the mercenary is on next turn before his unequipped ass gets swarmed. If not, I may need to improvise.

I begin to migrate everyone else towards the southeast corner before I remember this isn’t lunatic, and the purple area isn’t an instant death zone. I park Chromzord on the forest tile just east of that set of four safe zones in the lower middle of the map and put Virion next to him for backup. This, hopefully, will make it easier for Henshin to navigate to the forest by reducing the number of enemies that will reach him on the enemy phase to 2. I leave Vaike, Lissa, Sully and Frederick in that four-tile safe zone, the first three because they can’t reach the east safe zone, and vaike so that Miriel can give him his axe next turn.

I had unfortunately forgotten that enemies LOVE to gang up on unarmed opponents, so the barbarian ignores Chromzord in favor of Henshin.

Miriel arrives!

Miriel: Intriguing. The metabolic processes of these organic creatures appears to have ceased, and yet there they are, still capable of locomotion. I must understand this phemomenon further.

Frederick: Incredible! I didn’t understand a single word she said! It must be Rally Blue! RALLY BLUE! ACCEPT! YOUR! DESTINY!

Miriel: …Oh, if I must.

Also, a soldier has moved towards the southeast corner. Thankfully enemy placement miraculously allows for me to attack the lancefigher with Virion (hits), then with Chromzord (hits, gets counterattacked), and then finally allow Miriel to trade Vaike his axe back without entering the upper horde’s attack zone so Vaike can finish off the soldier. Lissa heals Chromzord, and everyone’s in the clear from the horde. Now to slowly but steadily get the horde off of Henshin before he starts resorting to the too-awesome-to-use elixirs.

I got very, VERY lucky with which enemies chose to swarm Henshin first. One mercenary, two soldiers and a barbarian. 2, 2, 2 and 3, meaning Henshin takes less than 10 damage a turn. First target: the east-straggling soldier with nothing to do. I put Vaike into JUST his range and wait (I can go another turn without healing Henshin, and that’s better since he takes less than 10 damage a turn).

Everything goes according to plan. Henshin’s still alive (no chance of critical hits so this was a given), the soldier took the bait, and Vaike succeeded his counterattack. Vaike retreats, Lissa heals, and Miriel and Virion finish off the soldier. Virion gets HP, Skill, Spd and Res. Not the best level up, but still I haven’t gotten a single really bad one yet.

…And I forgot to heal Henshin. Fantastic. I restart.

More or less the same thing happens, Virion gets a slightly better level up, gaining Def instead of Res.

I finish vulnerary 1. Time to get serious. I have Vaike bait two enemies this time, a barbarian and a soldier. Chromzord doesn’t dual strike on either of them. Lissa heals Vaike, Chromzord kills the barbarian, and Miriel and Virion both take down the soldier. Chromzord levels up, HP, Str, Skill, Spd, Lck. Thanks to Chromzord’s positioning, the last remaining barbarian goes after him and is quickly felled by Virion and Miriel. In an effor to save the other set of vulneraries, I move Henshin upwards hoping to reach a fortress in time to totally nullify their attacks on him.

Success! the remaining two are then picked off with ease, and Miriel gets her first level up!

…Hp, Skill, and Lck. My first bad level up. Yay.

To save charges I heal everyone’s scratch damage with the fortresses before setting about taking on the northern enemies.

I have Henshin and Chromzord stand side by side on the bridge with Virion and Miriel as ranged backup. Whenever one of them gets too injured (which will assuredly first be Chromzord, I’ll have them retreat to the fortress to heal while Vaike takes their place for a while, and then repeat. Lissa will do emergency heals. Let’s see how this strategy winds up working for me.

A quick tip: When you’re turtling using equipped tanks, ALWAYS range-kill any units the tanks could kill instantly next turn, otherwise it’s basically free damage on the enemy phase and the tank is more likely to fall.

Chrom levels up: HP, Spd, Lck, Res.

I unequip Henshin and Chromzord for one turn so Chromzord can heal up and so both my range fighters and Lissa can fit around Chromzord and Henshin at once.

Lissa levels up, gets Str, Lck, Def and Res. Pretty good.

Henshin reaches level 6 and gains Mag, Skill, Def and Res. NOT A SINGLE LEVEL UP SO FAR FOR THIS GUY HAS FAILED TO YIELD DEFENSE. Oh, and he reached sword level D.

Chromzord starts doubling, but thankfully this is at the point where there’s only two enemies left, so he survies the repeated enemy phase onslaught.

I have Virion take down the boss. He’s sturdier than Miriel and is also worse off in terms of offense since he’s weak and physical, so he needs it. Sadly he gets a critical hit so he can’t milk it for as much as I had hoped, and his level up isn’t the best (Hp, Mag, Spd and Res), but oh well, I’m not restarting this again, there were a lot of mishaps in that early phase of this map.

CHAPTER COMPLETE!

[Jedi]

Huge power rangers fan coming in to say this concept is awesome. Keep it up

Edited May 21, 2015 by Jedi

[eclipse]

As long as Virion continues to be a Speed demon, he'll be fine.

Anyway, I thoroughly enjoy the writing~!

[Flamy]

This is awesome. Keep up the great work!

[Alastor15243]

Alright, I've got a chapter and a paralogue for you this time!

CHAPTER 3:

(The Rally Rangers are teleported back to Ylisstol, right in front of Emmeryn)

Henshin: wait, hold on, you can TELEPORT US?

Emmeryn: Well done, Rally Rangers! Your numbers are increasing rapidly and you get stronger with every mission! And welcome, newcomers, to the exalted ranks of Rally Rangers!

Chromzord: It is our honor, sister.

Lissa: We fight for the good of all! Yay!

Vaike: We’re superheroes? AWESOME!

Miriel: The previous melee was substantially intriguing, and this talk of superheroism fascinates me. I believe I shall continue in this cause.

Virion: Indeed, truly this is magnificent honor! …Though I must say… am I truly… *shudder*… Rally… Orange?

Emmeryn: Yes.

Virion: (incomprehensible cries of agony continue in the background while Emmeryn talks)

Emmeryn: I will now send you directly to the gates of castle Ferox, where you shall be united with Rally Green and Rally Cyan. Good luck!

Henshin: You’re teleporting us directly in front of another kingdom’s gates? Don’t you think that would be kinda rash and aggressi-AAUUUUUGH!

Finally we have the preparation screen and convoy. Goodbye, Sully, Stahl and Frederick! I put their equipment in storage, restock all to give Henshin a full bronze sword, and prepare for the upcoming arrival of Sumia. Miriel wound up with the iron lance and I think I’ll let her keep it for the time being, as she’s the ideal unit to trade it to Sumia as soon as battle starts, since she won’t be getting into battle on turn one. I’m gonna focus on swords for Henshin as much as I can, mostly because his thunder tome is at half durability. The miniature lance goes into storage. I managed to get through the previous three levels with just 12 uses of Lissa’s heal staff used, so I think I can go crazy this level. I’ll buy her plenty more once the shops open after this chapter ends.

Ah, Kellam. I never really got around to using you much outside of mildly in my very first run. But here you’re going to be crucial to setting up turtling strategies in situations where that becomes necessary. Which will be often. Because I can’t use pair up. While the child paralogues won’t be an issue for us, turtling is still going to be necessary at parts because of the lack of galeforce.

Begin!

Alas, Henshin’s fears turned out to be justified, as when he arrived, the guardswoman was rightfully taken aback by the sudden appearance of foreign troops right outside of their gates.

Raimi: Halt! Who goes there!?

Henshin: Alright, everyone, nobody say anything ungodly stupid, like-

Lissa: (Making absurd wooshing hand gestures) WE ARE THE RALLY RANGERS!

Vaike: (Same) BRAVE AND STRONG WARRIORS OF JUSTICE!

Virion: (Same) NOBLE, GRACEFUL AND DASHING HEROES OF GLORY!

Miriel: (Same, but only with one hand, because she’s distracted by a book she’s reading) Intellectual and sagacious vanguards of wisdom!

Chromzord: (Like the others) And we have come to find two among our number!

Henshin: (Casual, matter-of-fact tone, mortified look on his face) …We’re totally gonna die.

Raimi: What is this nonsense I hear!?

Henshin: Forgive me, ma’am, my friends are kind of… insane.

Raimi: I SHOULD THINK SO! WHO ELSE WOULD DARE IMPERSONATE THE AWESOME AND INCREDIBLY SEXY RALLY RANGERS!?

Henshin: …Oh god.

Raimi: Prepare to fall where you stand, villains, in the name of everything the REAL Rally Rangers stand for! Or, if you would claim your claims to be true, TEST THEM IN THE FIELD OF BATTLE! DEFEAT US AND WE SHALL KNOW YOUR CLAIMS TO BE TRUE!

Henshin: We’re level FIVE! How hard can it be to impersonate our skill level!?

Frederick: Rally Rangers! You heard the woman! Kick their butts and leave them an inch from death’s door, but alive nonetheless! For a true Rally Ranger does not kill the innocent! Beat up the innocent and take their stuff, sure, but kill them? NEVER! And now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to run somewhere very very far away!

Sumia: (Mutters panickedly) Oh no! Am I late? (shouts) EVILDOERS BEWARE, LEST YOU INCUR THE WRATH OF RALLY GREEN! (Flies in, trips while sitting down, falls off of her horse) Woooooooaaaaah!

…Right then. Here’s Sumia. In contrast to the other characters I’ve mentioned, Sumia is a character I’ll be using LESS in this playthrough, at least early on, if only because usually I put a massive amount of effort into getting her to dark flier 15 before the end of chapter 13 so that Lucina can start with galeforce. I then turn her into a great knight where she rocks for a bit but eventually slows down compared to the child characters. But this time she can’t go dark flier, she’s going falcon knight. And also there’s no using children characters, and I’m thinking the child paralogues are banned too, but I’m not sure. It feels deeply, VISCERALLY wrong to bring Owain or Cynthia into existence and not use them on this sort of run. I mean really. So I think I’m gonna just not do the paralogues.

First turn order of business: Recruit Kellam. So I do that.

Chromzord: You there!

Kellam: (surprised) …What?

Chromzord: Yes, you! Tell me, what is your name?

Kellam: …Kellam. Wait… You… you can SEE ME!?

Chromzord: Of course I can! You can't tell me anyone’s ever failed to see the burning fiery passion for justice churning within your soul, shining bright as a beacon!

Kellam: (excited) ONLY EVERY TIME ANYONE’S EVER LOOKED MY WAY! I… I’ve never been noticed before! My own parents forgot I ever existed! I’ve spent my entire life just struggling to get by, unable to interact with anyone! Are you telling me there’s a whole group of people that can see me? That notice me!? THAT BELIEVE I HAVE A PURPOSE!?

Chromzord: YES! COME, RALLY CYAN! WILL YOU FIGHT FOR TRUTH, JUSTICE, PUPPIES AND CHRISTMAS!?

Kellam: IT! WOULD! BE! MY! HONOR!

So there, now we have Kellam. I move Kellam and Henshin, my two biggest tanks, up ahead of Chromzord and equip their ranged weapons to attract the fire of the archers. The goal is to have everything weak enough that by next turn we can beat all of them with my less sturdy units joining the fray for a single player phase.

Unfortunately two enemies wound up going for Chromzord, including an archer. Couldn’t be helped, Chromzord had to be there. Vaike beats the soldier because he’s really the only guy in range of him. I have Chromzord attack the healthy archer that attacked him, and he gains a weapon rank to C and levels up, gaining HP, Str, Skill, Lck and Def. This allows Kellam to finish off that archer, and also lets Sumia pick up my miniature, silver and bronze lance and take down the other archer with her doubling. I played it safe and used her iron lance, but a lucky dual strike from Chromzord means that a gamble with a bronze lance would have paid off. THAT time.

I kept Miriel and Virion on standby to beat the final soldier, but a dual strike from Kellam means Miriel got the kill, and the closest thing so far I’ve gotten to a bad level up (HP, spd).

I finish off the turn with Lissa healing Henshin, gaining her a D rank in staves. Chromzord had more need of it, but unit placement kept me from healing Chromzord that turn. Virion gets a head start moving towards the other enemy group, and I end the turn. Nothing happens, of course.

Some healing later, and I repeat the process, this time just with Henshin and Kellam tanking and Chromzord safetly out of the way.

The archer got a dual strike and will now fall to pretty much anyone, which is good, because the mercenary didn’t get attacked.

This is actually a rather inconvenient position for me to rout the four enemies from without moving Kellam and Henshin (I wanna make sure the more fragile ones get the assault EXP before having to resort to them to protect everyone), but I’m a veteran, I’ll manage.


First off, Vaike attacks one of the soldiers again, the only one in his range again, but he’s not strong enough to KO it this time (It’s so annoying avoiding the kill word this chapter because in the story that’s not what happens). Virion finishes off the soldier, Miriel finishes off the archer, Chromzord whittles down the health of the lancefighter, who Henshin is forced to finish off. Tome rank C.

Unfortunately I’ll have to weather the Mercenary’s assault this turn. I move Kellam to protect Miriel (statistics say she’ll survive but low level mages getting hit always makes me nervous) and I move Sumia in to fill his gap to protect Lissa while she heals Henshin. She levels up and gains Mag, Spd and Lck. I’m hoping she gets a bit more mag, she’s gonna need to use a rescue staff in a couple of chapters unless I do some genius maneuvering to eliminate the threats in Maribelle’s chapter.

Mercenary attacks Sumia, as I suspected, and Chromzord dual strikes, not quite enough to KO. Just for the heck of it I use the bronze lance to finish him off since I have it and the iron lance is overkill. No idea how heavily my thief problem is going to tighten my finances.

JACKPOT! I CANNOT LOSE NOW! CHROMZORD GOT A LEIF’S BLADE ON AN EVENT TILE! I can’t lose this!

So I’m gonna have Kellam, my less experienced tank, block the passageway between the castle tiers at the absolute most southern point so that Miriel and Virion can pick off the enemies who assault him and Lissa can heal him all without any need to move anyone around. Walling 101: Maximize allied adjacent tiles, minimize enemy adjacent tiles.

Miriel gains Tome level D as she and Virion take down the first knight on the left side. Lissa heals Kellam and gets an epic level up (HP, Mag, Skill, Spd, Lck, Def and Res).

Kellam baits the other three left side units, and nothing of note happens except a mercenary crits him, doing a whopping three damage. Taking down said Mercenary finally nets Miriel her first level up that actually gets her some magic (Hp, Mag, Skill and Res to be precise). I advance Kellam a space so Virion can attack the archer Kellam wounded with Javelins. He gets his best level up so far (HP, Str, Mag, Skl, Spd, Lck).

All that remains of the east side is the fighter. I re-equip Kellam and retreat him to just below the staircase, again just barely blocking the fighter from the other members of my team. The fighter attacks, Miriel Dual Guards, and Kellam’s counterattack nets him his first level up. HP, Mag, Def, Res. Oddly magical level up for the guy, but hey he’s a tank, and he now takes one less damage from everything. Who am I to complain?

I was gonna have Virion wound and Miriel kill the last fighter since she’s a level behind, but a dual strike from Kellam ruined that plan. Ah well. Not counting he boss, there are now three enemies left, but I’m gonna have henshin take the other side this time, on account of the guy with the hammer I really don’t want to risk forgetting about.

I trade Sumia Kellam’s javelin because I realized she’s still level 1 and on the verge of a level up, I figure I’ll let her snipe some enemies once the western archer is gone. I really REALLY don’t want her to fall behind just because I’m not obsessing over her this playthrough. I may not pour all of my renown awards stat up items onto her this time, but she’s definitely getting at least one of them, probably the energy drop or dracoshield.

I underestimated how much damage Henshin would do with a thundertome when I equipped it (in my defense, the bronze sword did nothing, but then again I did have the iron sword, didn’t feel like wasting that), and a dual strike from Virion KO’d the knight, netting Hensin his first level up that didn’t raise defense (HP, Mag, Spd, Lck, Res), though that’s still quite good, and it raised Res, so that’s still defensive.

Virion did two consecutive and almost meaningless dual guards as Henshin retreated to the range-potshotting position after attracting the remaining three enemies’ attention. Virion and Miriel KO the mercenary, Sumia finishes off the archer from the now empty space, and Henshin advances to the Archer’s former position to protect her. Sumia leveled up for my first genuinely horrible level up so far (Lck). Oh Sumia. Oh dear.

On the plus side, Lissa’s heal of Henshin got another fantastic level up for her (Str, Mag, Skill, Spd, Lck, Def).

Sumia finished off the hammer fighter, and I send her to the event tile since she’s the most in need of some XP or weapon experience and she’s the most mobile anyway (She gets Roy’s blade, I’ll give that to Chromzord probably). And now it’s time for the boss.

Miriel’s my only ranged unit other than Henshin who can damage Raimi, so I have her weaken Raimi. But seeing that I’ve mildly neglected the Vaike this chapter, I give him the hammer and have him finish her off. He levels up and gets HP, Str, Def. Eh. Important stats, that’s for sure, so that’s fine.

CHAPTER COMPLETE!

I have a lot of supports at the end of this chapter: Chrom and Sumia reach C, Henshin and Virion reach C, and Kellam and Miriel reach C.

PARALOGUE 1:

Oh dear, this is the first time I’m going to be doing this, but this is going to be a junk file anyway due to some supports I’m planning to do. I’m actually going to not recruit Donnel in this chapter. Laws of destiny forbid him from touching enemies and all. I don’t think I’m going to do any dialogue for side-chapters, don’t feel like it and it means I can get them out faster.

Anyway, SHOPPING TIME!

I get Lissa two heal staves, and I start stocking up on tonics in case a risen batallion blocks it later. I get five STR and five Def tonics. Miriel gets a tome of fire, Henshin a tome of thunder. I know he’ll get one in chapter 4, but I can’t make do with the 13 charges he has left until then, so he gets some early. I also break out the renown awards I’ve unlocked (up to Alm’s Blade). Vaike gets Orsin’s hatchet, Henshin gets the Levin Sword (once he gains another rank in swords it’ll be his most powerful magical attack for quite some time), Chromzord gets the noble rapier. I also break out the bonus box items, but nobody can use them yet so I don’t bother giving them to anyone.

Once Chrom reaches level 10 I’m giving him the second seal and making him a cavalier. This is crucial to making him as strong as possible by the time everyone gets their rallies. I’ll make him a cavalier, then a great knight until level 10, and then he’ll stay a great lord for the rest of the game, with the Luna Aether Rightful King trifecta.

Time to enter the paralogue map.

Top priority: GETTING THAT RESCUE STAFF, and the killer lance if possible, BUT MAINLY THE RESCUE STAFF. Precious, precious rescue staves. We’re going to need to use them wisely, especially since we’ll likely have to use two charges to get Ricken and Miriel out of harm’s way in chapter 5. And no, I can’t just let him die, he can’t even enter a single round of combat with the enemy or I lose.

I’m gonna let the upper thief unlock the door and steal the killer lance, as that means I’ll have a free chest key for later use, which could be absolutely vital to my army’s funds somewhere down the line.

Thankfully this map has just enough slots that I can deploy my entire team. I was worried it would expand too quickly with so many of my permanent team members joining so soon, but it looks like I’ll be fine, with the exception of chapter 4 and it’s measly 6 slots counting Chromzord.

I take a bit of a gamble by having Vaike finish off the upper thief after Virion weakens him (reaching Bow level C. He can now use longbows, but I’m not sure if I want him using that thing quite yet). The gamble pays off, and Vaike kills the thief. Miriel weakens the barbarian and Chromzord uses Roy’s blade to kill him. I then position Sumia outside of the remaining archer’s range to finish him off, and Lissa to heal whoever the archer attacks.

Meanwhile, below, Henshin and Kellam head out to face the two nearby barbarians.

The archer attacks Miriel, leaving him weak enough for Sumia to finish off. She levels up doing so, actually gaining strength (Str, Mag, Lck, Res). Meanwhile I continue to maneuver Kellam and Henshin towards the treasure trove, keeping them side by side and attacking what I can while doing so.

When the archer starts attacking I lure him with Chromzord over towards the other party members, and Sumia finishes him off. Chromzord then takes down one of the barbarians while Henshin and Kellam keep moving forward. Clock is ticking with that thief, can’t afford to slow down for a moment. I packed Kellam with vulneraries and Henshin uses one instead of waiting for Lissa.

Barbarian suicides on Vaike, even though Vaike missed, because Sumia dual strikes and criticals. Vaike gets Hp, Skill, Spd, Lck.

I give Kellam his javelin and Henshin his thunder and send them into the next batch of enemies, with the rest of my party following behind them. Virion and Miriel have to stay a turn behind because of the attack range of those two barbarians in the middle of the map.

Everyone attacks Henshin except for a hand axe barbarian, and he attacks everyone back except for an archer who he misses. No dual strikes. Lovely.

In the resulting pick-off, Chromzord gains a level (HP, Lck, Def, Res), and Henshin gains a level (HP, Str, Res) and gets a superior lance on an event tile. The Thief swipes the killer lance, and since I usually storm this map with faster units before he gets this far and thus have no idea how he’ll behave after this, I use Henshin to block off the only edge tile he can reach next turn while not blocking off his escape entirely in case that encourages him to steal the rescue staff too.

The archer in the treasure room attacks Henshin and loses half of his health to thunder for his trouble.

Lissa levels up again (Hp, Mag, Skill, Lck). This now gives her a rescue range of 5, which I think is plenty for chapter 5’s needs.

The thief falls to Virion, and I have Henshin kill the archer, still boxed in, the idiot, with two turns of attacks wth a bronze sword to work on his sword rank.

Rescue staff retrieved! Final stretch of the level approaching!

Now that we have a moment to rest and I now have full access to shops, I have Lissa heal everyone no matter how light their wounds for some more exp. She reaches staff rank C. She levels up again, Hp, Str, Mag and Res. I wonder if she’ll have anywhere near decent strength by the time she becomes a war cleric. First time I’ll have made her one, actually.

With everyone healed up, I have Sumia, my weakest unit, lure in one of those center-map barbarians with Chromzord supporting her. A dual strike makes quick work of him, and Sumia gets a small but well-focused level up (HP, Str, Spd).

Lissa levels up again healer her back to full health (HP, Str, Mag, Skill, Lck). Huh. Maybe she’ll have some hope as a war cleric after all!

While I’m at it, I basically have Sumia, with Chromzord backing, take down the third barbarian too, leaving just the two archers, and those she’ll steer clear of. She levels up again (Str, Skill, Spd, Lck).

Miriel takes care of the remaining Archers, leveling up (HP, Mag). Damn it, what is it with her level ups!?

Virion takes down the boss, Lissa heals and gains another level up, reaching level 10 (HP, Skill, Spd). Healtouch now means she’ll be healing a lot more. Virion levels up, gaining HP, Str, Mag, and Spd.

CHAPTER COMPLETE!

Chromzord reaches C support level with Vaike and Lissa, Virion and Miriel reach C, and Kellam and Henshin reach C.

Edited May 22, 2015 by Alastor15243

[eclipse]

Here. Flavor text for Paralogue 1:

Donnel: Th-THE RALLY RANGERS?! I ain't gonna interfere! Take this, it's all I got! Now go get 'em!

[Alastor15243]

CHAPTER 4

The Rally Rangers arrive at castle Ferox and speak to Khan Flavia.

Flavia: So it’s true! The Rally Rangers have come to our lands to grace us! Magnificent! Oh Basilio is going to be SO. JEALOUS!

Chromzord: We have not yet found all of our members, so I fear we cannot stay long. We were just about to get going, actually, as we’ve found the members we were told we would find here.

Flavia: What? NO! PLEASE! I just sent an incredibly boastful letter to Khan Basilio bragging that the Rally Rangers are here! You can’t leave before he gets there, he’ll think I made it up! I’ll never hear the end of it! AT least stay long enough for me to rub it in his one-eyed face!

Henshin: …How long will that be?

Flavia: He’ll be here in a few minutes, tops!

Henshin: *groans* fine. Not like that’s any less weird or pointless than the rest of my life.

A few minutes later, and, sure enough, Basilio arrives with nine warriors at his side.

Basilio: So, Flavia, what’s this I hear about you having the Rally Rangers visit? Couldn’t bother coming up with a more believable lie?

Flavia: Shows what you know! See? They’re right here! Nah-nah-na-nah-nah!

Henshin: Uh, yeah. Hi.

Basilio: PFFFFT! That’s rich! You see, it just so happens that MY side of the country was visited by the Rally Rangers! And they’re right here with me!

Knight: Eh, ja, ja, we are the Rally Rangerrrz. That is how the cool kids pronounce it these days.

Lucinazord: Beep Boop Bop. I am Lucinazord. Let us fight for justice and other things.

Flavia: WHAT PREPOSTEROUS NONSENSE! These are the true Rally Rangers over here! They showed up right in front of my castle and beat up my level three soldiers! Who else could beat up level three soldiers!?

Basilio: Oh really? Because that’s EXACTLY WHAT THESE GUYS DID TO *MY* LEVEL THREE SOLDIERS!

Flavia: What? LIES! YOU LIE! YOU’RE A LIAR!

Basilio: It appears we are at an impasse.

Flavia: If you want to call it that. We need a way to prove to the other once and for all who has the real Rally Rangers! There’s nothing else for it! Our teams must duel to the death!

Henshin: What!?

Flavia: Hell, I’m so confident mine are the real deal, I bet they could kick your guys’ butts with just six of them to your nine!

Henshin: WHAT!?

Basilio: YOU’RE ON!

And so we’re on chapter 4. Fairly straightforward chapter, you pick six units counting Chromzord, split them into two groups of three, and have them each take a side, killing each unit that comes for you before the next unit reaches you. Quite straightforward. Chromzord, Sumia and Lissa take the east side and Virion, Miriel and Vaike take the west side (I give them all vulneraries to compensate for not having Lissa with them). Kellam and Henshin sit this one out, this being a level that really doesn’t need tanks.

Chromzord goes to the event tile and gets Alm’s Blade. Sumia moves to just below him. On the other side, I move Vaike just barely into the fighter’s range and put Virion and Miriel just outside of it. Fighter misses Vaike, Vaike halves his HP with counterattack. Other fighter attacks Sumia and hits for serious damage, but Sumia finishes him off thanks to a dual strike from Chromzord. Chromzord levels up (HP, Spd, Lck).

Thanks to healtouch, Lissa now heals for 20 HP with a heal staff, which is more than enough to fully heal Sumia. Sumia then proceeds to paste the mage with minimal damage taken. Chrom moves to attract the hand axe fighter.

Vaike can finish off the fighter, and Miriel and Virion can just BARELY kill the mage with their combined attacks. Miriel does the first attack since she has more resistance. And luckily she dodges.

Enemy phase, the east hand axe fighter advances, missing Chromzord and the west one doesn’t advance, not being in range of anyone.

I take a gamble and have Sumia attempt to kill the fighter, relying on Chromzord’s positioning and a lucky dual strike. I get it, on the second attack. Chromzord advances into the knight’s range and equips his rapier, making sure to be next to Sumia, who Lissa heals up. On the west side I have Vaike equip his hammer and go in range of the western knight.

Amazingly Vaike dodges the knight’s attack too, meaning nobody on the side without healers has sustained a single hit yet. Vaike levels up (HP, Str, Skill, Def). Chromzord is less lucky on the dodge but still kicks his knight’s ass with his trusty Rapier.

Chromzord and Sumia advance towards Lucinazord, and Miriel, Virion and Vaike team up to fell the hand axe fighter, their streak of dodges finally coming to an end with Miriel getting hit.

Damn that Parallel Falchion is strong. As I debate sending Sumia over there I realize that the weapon triangle advantage she has is the only reason she wouldn’t get one-shot. I decide to send Chromzord into the danger zone instead, with Sumia beside him. Chromzord can survive another round, so he attacks again, and Lucinazord misses. Virion throws in another hit and Chromzord dual strikes, finishing off Lucinazord. Virion levels up (HP, Mag, Skill, Spd, Def), the battle is over.

CHAPTER COMPLETE!

Flavia: WHOO! IN YOUR FACE, BASILIO!

Basilio: …Why do you always have to be so MEAN!? (Runs away crying)

Flavia: Thank you for your help, Rally Rangers! If you ever need anything of me, just ask!

Vaike: It was our pleasure, Ma’am!

All: RALLY RANGERS, GO!

(Teleport away)

Supports: Chromzord and Sumia reach B, Vaike and Miriel reach C.

Edited May 23, 2015 by Alastor15243

[eclipse]

The flavor text makes more sense than the canon story.

Also, you're getting quite lucky with the event tiles!

[Alastor15243]

Looks like I'm on a roll today! Here's another entry!

CHAPTER 5

Disaster strikes! A mercary blocks the tome shop! Boy am I glad I bought some last chapter! Realizing I still have bullion money and worrying that another such thing will happen to the longfort, I buy 10 more str and def tonics each before starting. Anyway, let’s begin:

Henshin and the Rally Rangers returned to Ylisstol, only to learn that General Gangrel had been sighted at the border pass with a young woman and a little boy held prisoner. They immediately set out to face this menace head-on!

(Rally Rangers teleport in)

Vaike: GANGREL! You unbelievably bogus coward!

Chromzord: Unhand those civilians!

Sumia: Before we’re forced to do something really really mean to you!

Gangrel: Oh, I think not! For you see, these are no mere civilians at all! Uwehehehehehehe! Yes, fools, you cannot hide it from me, I’ve just captured Rally Blue and Rally Violet! And if you come one step closer towards them, I shall have my men decapitate them with extreme prejudice!

(Dead silence)

Lissa: Gangrel? We kinda, uh, we kinda already HAVE Rally Blue.

Miriel: Salutations.

Lissa: So yeah, that little boy isn’t Rally Blue.

Gangrel: WHAAAAT!? NO! Well no matter! I’ve already gone to the trouble of tying him up, so I’ll axe him anyway!

Chromzord: NO! YOU CAN’T! Frederick says if any of the minions of the Shadowy Forces of General Unpleasantness ever lay hands upon a non-destined individual, the universe would explode?

Gangrel: Oh, that is a very good point, yes, I see. There’s just one thing… I’M COMPLETELY INSANE! EVER THINK OF THAT? Maybe I WANT the universe to explode! UWEHEHEHEHEHEHE! LET THE EXECUTION COMMENCE!

Lissa: WHAT? You said you were going to use them as hostages to keep us from getting closer!

Gangrel: CHANGED MY MIND, THAT PLAN IS STUPID!

Henshin: (From behind Gangrel) Sure is, nice catch there. But too little, too late.

Gangrel: Bweh?

(Gangrel turns around to see Henshin cutting Maribelle and Ricken free)

Henshin: RUN YOU TWO, FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY!

(They do so, and Henshin dodges the enemy forces and makes his way back to the main group)

Henshin: (Thumbs up) Great work, team, your unbelievably stupid theatrics were the perfect distraction!

Lissa: STUPID!?

Miriel: UNBELIEVABLY!?

Henshin: Look, priorities, alright? We saved them, didn’t we? Now let’s hurry up and get ready!

Well, this chapter we finally get Rally Violet, Maribelle! And I’m going to attempt (key word attempt) to get her and Ricken to safety without using the rescue staff. If I can’t, I’ll use it, but I wanna see if I can spare it due to my predicted future financial woes.

I give Sumia, who will finally be making use of her flying this chapter, a str and def tonic since she’ll be wading into enemy lines a bit to help defend Ricken and Maribelle. I put Henshin and Kellam closest to the nearby upward ramp, Vaike and Maribelle both within attacking range of the lowermost barbarian with Virion one behind Miriel, Lissa in back, and I begin.

I start with the western enemies. Miriel attacks the lowest barbarian and levels up, finally getting a solid level up (HP, Mag, Skill, Spd). Chrom uses Roy’s blade to one-round the upper western barbarian, and this gives Vaike two options for where to attack the lower barbarian from: beside Chrom, which would allow for a more likely dual strike but forces him to use Orsin’s hatchet at range, or beside Miriel, which lets him attack at melee with stronger weapons but means a less likely dual strike. Seeing I can one-shot the bastard with a hammer strike, I opt for the latter. The accuracy was a bit shaky at 73%, but the barbarian went down.

Up above, I decide that the myrmidon is by far the greatest menace, capable of doubling Maribelle. So I have Virion longbow him (succeeds), and then I have Sumia lance him, killing him. Sumia gets a GREAT level up (HP, Str, Skill, Spd, Lck, Res), and gains lances level C. She can finally use Ephraim’s lance, which is basically a C rank silver lance with a speed bonus.

The barbarian might go down this turn if I get a lucky dual strike with either Sumia supporting Kellam or Kellam supporting Henshin (the latter have a support rank) or if Henshin gets a lucky critical with Leif’s blade. At first I thought I’d need it for Sumia to survive, but the barbarian and the nearby dark mage can’t kill her in one turn thanks to the def tonic and her high res. But it would definitely be a plus if I didn’t have to worry about the barbarian next turn or a weakened Sumia, so fingers crossed!

Sumia doesn’t dual strike for Kellam, but Henshin criticals with Leif’s blade, just barely downing the barbarian. Success! The route down the hill now clear of any physical enemies, I have Maribelle move straight into the range of the dark mage, who can’t do much to her. Ricken, however, has to stay outside of all attack ranges because if he even enters combat it’s game over. Maribelle mends Sumia for the 1 HP added to her maximum, and Ricken gets as close to the exit ramp as he can without entering enemy attack range.

The dark mage on the bottom area attacks Vaike, hitting for 12 damage. The upper one attacks Kellam, hitting for 10.

Man, that longbow’s really coming in handy, especially since it’s currently Virion’s strongest weapon. He uses it to one-round the dark mage from safety thanks to his speed,

I intentionally avoid one-rounding the lower dark mage with Chromzord by switching to Falchion so they can both get experience. Chromzord gets an excellent level up (HP, Str, Skill, Spd, Lck, Res), and Vaike gets a mediocre one (HP, Str, Skill).

I cut my losses and have Lissa use one rescue charge on Ricken (at least I avoided having to rescue Maribelle), netting Lissa another fantastic level up (HP, Str, Mag, Skill, Spd, Lck, Res). Ricken and Miriel then meet up halfway and she gets Ricken’s elwind, which will be quite useful for those annoying wyvern riders. If only Miriel had gotten some better level ups so far, she might be able to lay serious waste to them.

Seeing a convenient wyvern rider placement, I position Sumia so that next turn, if the wyvern rider takes the bait, Miriel can start putting that tome to use immediately. Kellam takes a vulnerary from Virion and heals up, and he and Henshin guard the ramp with their two range weapons, standing side by side.

Henshin levels up on the enemy phase, gaining HP, Mag, and Spd. That’s three consecutive levels without defense, which is a tiny bit disquieting, but his def is stilll holding, and he did need speed.

My phase comes by and Henshin’s in bad shape, and there are a lot of enemies coming up. I retreat Kellam and Henshin back a bit to reduce enemy side surface area as Henshin heals up a bit and continues to tank. I elect to equip melee weapons this time because there really aren’t many ranged units nearby. The wyvern riders are the heaviest hitters, so I have virion longbow one of them from safety. Chromzord moves in and Maribelle picks up a heal staff from the convoy and uses it on him.

Realizing with horror I may have left an opening for Henshin to get wailed on, I have Miriel take all of Kellam’s stuff to avoid dual strikes and I have Sumia snipe the critically wounded barbarian with her miniature lance. To my horror the first one misses, but the second one is a critical. The enemy phase goes fine, with the wyvern rider attacking Sumia (being the only one who can), and getting a critical to the face for his trouble.

Sumia backs away and lobs more miniature lances, but one misses so the wyvern rider clings to life barely. Kellam finishes him off and levels up, gaining HP Str and Skill. Maribelle heals Sumia to full health, Henshin uses a vulnerary, and I end the turn.

Strangely two enemies with ranged attacks attack the people who can actually attack back this enemy phase.

Vaike and Chromzord (still on the left side of the map, to clarify) kill the hand axe barbarian and advance into the range of the upcoming wyvern rider respectively, standing side by side as their turns end. Henshin finishes off the mage and now it’s Kellam’s turn to tank the enemies now that the mages are gone. Healing Lissa from her level up nets Maribelle her first level up (Mag, Skill, Spd, Lck, pretty good).

On the enemy phase, Kellam reaches lance level C. On the west side, Chromzord contends with both the wyvern rider and a myrmidon reinforcement while Vaike contends with the dark mage reinforcement I let slip through when I repositioned Vaike. I correct that when I attack the dark mage, and Vaike reaches C rank in axes. I migrate Maribelle over to where Vaike and Chromzord are since they’re fighting the lesser battle and thus Maribelle is in less danger. I have Lissa heal Henshin and simultaneously bait a wyvern rider to attack her. Kellam levels up again on enemy phase, and it’s glorious (HP, Str, Skill, Spd, Lck, Def)!

Chromzord is a few exp away from reclass time! The wyvern rider takes the bait, and is subsequently utterly pasted by the team work of Virion (who levels up spectacularly, gaining Str, Mag, Skill, Spd, Lck, Def and Res) and Miriel. Now there’s only a weakened myrmidon and a full health barbarian among the forces rushing down to get us. Sumia moves in to pick off a myrmidon and gains a level (Str, Mag, Skill, Res), Kellam weakens the barbarian with a javelin and Henshin goes in for the kill with leif’s blade (Fails to crit, and Kellam’s DS misses, but he levels up, gaining HP, Str, and Lck. Okay, now I’m starting to worry about Henshin’s defense. But hey, he gains Solidarity!)

And the wave of danger is over. I have Lissa and Maribelle start healing everyone up, and once that’s done, I have Chromzord bait a wyvern rider whose attack range reaches the upper end of the cliff. I give him a bronze sword so somebody else can get the kill (he only needs 7 exp to level up to 10, and since I’m reclassing him immediately afterward any more than that is wasted) and wait.

Chrom reaches level 10 (HP, Str, Spd, Res) from the wyvern rider, gains charm, and sword rank B. Unfortunately this starts triggering ALL of the wyvern riders, including the boss, to come at me. Miriel kills the weakened wyvern rider, Chromzord reclasses to cavalier and gains discipline. Maribelle retreats from the boss’s attack range and hits the event tile for 15 exp. Virion stands just outside the boss’s ranged attack range so he’ll counter with a devastating bow attack. Chrom finishes the boss off with his trusty falchion after Sumia goes in for scratch damage exp. Virion and Miriel finish off the other wyvern rider, Maribelle heals Virion and levels up (HP, Mag, Spd, Lck, Res), allowing Lissa to heal her. Next turn they both heal a badly wounded Sumia (Maribelle going first because Lisssa can heal her to full) and she levels up, gaining Hp, Str, Mag and Lck.

All that remains are a myrmidon, a barbarian and a dark mage. Kellam takes the job of handling them, with Henshin supporting behind him.

Three cheers for solidarity! Kellam crits and kills the barbarian, allowing the myrmidon to rush in and plink against him.

Kellam kills the myrmidon and Henshin kills the dark mage for the map win!

CHAPTER COMPLETE!

Maribelle: I must thank you for your assistance against those rogues! I don’t know what would have happened if you hadn’t stepped in!

Chromzord: You do yourself an injustice, you were really helpful yourself! But I guess this battle does prove you’re indeed the genuine Rally Violet! If you weren’t, when that dark mage attacked you the universe would’ve exploded! Or so I’m told.

Maribelle: Indeed, it appears I am! And I would be HONORED to join you in your NOBLE and GALLANT quest! Onwards!

I exit the map and what should I find but a knight risen group stationed right on top of the longfort. Good thing I bought those tonics!

...Okay, I'm looking at the paralogue where you first see Anna, and I realized that my rules need some revising. Non-rally ranger units can touch enemies and attack and such WHILE THEY'RE NPCS. Otherwise that chapter would be pretty much impossible until way WAY later in the game. Anyway, I'll probably get to work on that paralogue tomorrow. Trying to pace myself with this.

Edited May 23, 2015 by Alastor15243

[Alastor15243]

PARALOGUE 2

Alright, this shouldn’t be too tough, but I dislike the slow start all of my units have. Really the only ones who will be able to do anything turn 1 will be Miriel, Virion and Sumia. I thought at this point I would do a rundown of all of my units and their stats:

Chromzord: Level 1 Cavalier
HP: 29
Str: 13
Mag: 1
Skill: 13
Spd: 14
Lck: 11
Def: 11
Res: 5
Skills: DS+, Charm, Discipline

Pretty darned good I have to say. He probably needs experience the least of my team at this point.

Henshin: Level 10 Tactician
HP: 26
Str: 8
Mag: 10
Skill: 8
Spd: 10
Lck: 7
Def: 13
Res: 9
Skills: Veteran (Useless), Solidarity

Good for tanking… and not a heck of a lot else. But tanking is important. Yeah, without veteran, I find MU to be kind of unimpressive throughout the main game. Definitely far surpassed by morgan when I get them, but of course I’m not getting them (or her in this case) this run. I’m kinda predicting he’ll be mostly relegated to rally duty unless some miracle happens.

Kellam: Level 8 Knight
HP: 24
Str: 12
Mag: 1
Skill: 9
Spd: 6
Lck: 4
Def: 14
Res: 3
Skills: Def+2

My best tank on paper, though Henshin’s better against magical attacks and/or opponents with 10-14 speed.

Vaike: Level 7 Fighter
HP: 28
Str: 12
Mag: 0
Skill: 11
Spd: 7
Lck: 5
Def: 7
Res: 0
Skills: HP+5

Definitely my least impressive fighter. He’s comparable to Virion when he’s using a hand axe, so there’s that, but he has not been getting good level ups this run. Hopefully the speed thing will be resolved once he becomes a thief, but that’s a long way away. And at any rate, he’s underleveled. I’m gonna take the opportunity to feed him a lot of kills on chapter 6 in the hopes that it straightens him out. Here there isn’t much opportunity, but I’ll have him tag along with Virion and Miriel, that should work.

Sumia: Level 7 Pegasus Knight
HP: 20
Str: 11
Mag: 5
Skill: 14
Spd: 14
Lck: 12
Def: 5
Res: 10
Skills: Spd+2

Sumia always seems to impress me with her growths. He’s grown to be one of my most effective damage dealers, though she is still quite fragile. I think she’ll do just fine.

Miriel: Level 6 Mage
HP: 23
Str: 0
Mag: 9
Skill: 8
Spd: 9
Lck: 7
Def: 3
Res: 5
Skills: Mag+2

Definitely my most fragile unit, but she consistently has use thanks to her two-range functionality. I suspect she’ll get WAY more useful once she classes up to sage.

Virion: Level 9 Archer
HP: 25
Str: 9
Mag: 5
Skill: 14
Spd: 12
Lck: 9
Def: 9
Res: 3
Skills: Skill+2

Virion’s turning out quite good. He’ll be invaluable against the wyvern riders in the upcoming chapters and especially against any less armored fliers later in the game, and his speed has allowed him to double a few threats too. That longbow is surprisingly useful, I’m going to miss it when he has to promote to bow knight, though at least he’ll be more moble to make up for it. I’m not worried about him at all.

Lissa: Level 12 Cleric
HP: 25
Str: 7
Mag: 14
Skill: 11
Spd: 10
Lck: 17
Def: 7
Res: 9
Skills: Prayer, Healtouch

Lissa’s turning out excellently, and she’s getting enough strength increases that she might actually be able to do some damage with an axe when she promotes! I’m excited to see how that turns out. I was initially thinking that a support relationship with Vaike would be worthwhile so that he could help buff up her attacks, but she’s actually likely to be helping HIM out more in other areas.

Maribelle: Level 5 Troubadour

HP: 19
Str: 0
Mag: 7
Skill: 5
Spd: 8
Lck: 7
Def: 3
Res: 7
Skills: Res+2

Haven’t had her for long enough to make much of a comment on her, but having another healer’s always nice.

Alright, with that out of the way, let’s get started!


I beef Sumia up with tonics since she’s going to be going ahead with Chromzord to try to save the village and get that tasty tasty physic staff. Henshin and Kellam are going to head upwards to face those enemies on the same island as us, Miriel, Virion and Vaike are positioned to assault the first of the barbarians on the bridge, and Sumia’s positioned so she can just barely reach the latter. Maribelle and Lissa are positioned in the remaining spots in back. Let’s do this!

…And I immediately regret my decision to not storyboard the paralogues upon being reminded that Victor and Vincent exist. Right then. STORY TIME! I get my inspirational juices flowing by listening to one of my favorite “bad guys meeting” songs:

Victor: Why hello there, Vincent! A most splendiferous day to you!

Vincent: And a most spectastic day to you too, Victor!

Victor: And what would be on the itinerary for today, Darling?

Vincent: Why General Gangrel says it’s another wonderful day of raping and pillaging, Sweetie-Pookums!

Victor: My goodness, that sounds absolutely splendid! I suppose we’re starting with that village over there?

Vincent: Indeed we are! (Pulls out a megaphone tome) ATTENTION NEARBY VILLAGE! STAND BY TO BE SAVAGED, ROBBED BLIND, AND BURNT TO THE GROUND!

Victor: What a magnificent contraption, Victor, where on earth did you get it?

Vincent: Bought it from one of those red-haired traveling saleswomen! She had no idea what I was going to use it for! (Back into the megaphone tome) ALSO BE ON ALERT THAT OUR BAND OF BANDITS WILL REQUIRE ALL OF YOUR WOMEN, AND… (thinks, looks between him and Victor) FIVE OF YOUR CUTEST GUYS! COMPLY AND YOU WILL BE INCINERATED GENTLY!

Victor: Good lord Darling, do we really need five?

Vincent: We’ve been good boys this week, I say we treat ourselves!

Victor: Right you are, Dear, and so we shall!

Anna: Sorry to spoil your fun, boys, but I just checked inventory, and we’re fresh out of victims! But we’re having a sale today on justice!

Chromzord: (To the other Rally Rangers) Damn, that would’ve been a great moment for us to pop in!

Anna: Oh, and I am so sorry, but that is an Anna product, is it not? I’m afraid if you read the fine print, you’ll see that acts of banditry void the warranty on that thing, so you’re not getting a refund for any damages. Like… say…

(Tome explodes in Vincent’s face)

Vincent: BY JOVE, MY PRECIOUS FACE! OW OW OW OW OW! I fear you’ll have to do this one without me, Darling!

(Vincent retreats)

Victor: You will pay for that, money witch! Boys! Get her!

I plan on having Virion and Miriel soften up the berserker for Vaike to finish off with a hand axe, but an inconvenient dual strike from Virion (I had to have him attack from three spaces away with the long bow so Vaike would have room) means that Miriel finishes off the barbarian. I’m about to reset when Miriel actually gets a decent level up from it (HP, Str, Spd, Lck, Res), so I figure I’ll give this run a chance. She reaches C rank tomes, which means nothing to me at the moment except that she now has one more total attack power, which is nice I suppose.

Sumia would take more damage from that barbarian than I’d like, so I have her attempt to defeat it from a distance with her miniature lance. All she needs is one critical (or one dual strike from miriel and both 65% hit attacks connecting) to kill him. First hit is the critical I need.

Kellam and Henshin march up, Chromzord gets his butt out of the woods, and Vaike moves to defend Virion and possibly bait a barbarian (highly unlikely, he’s probably gonna go for Sumia)

The upper enemies start their usual assault of Anna. The mage attacks Sumia for minimal damage, she counters and Miriel dual strikes. SHe levels up, gaining Skill, Spd, Lck, Def, and Res. And just when I’m wondering whether or not the barbarian will be able to kill her in spite of this newfound strength, lo and behold, the barbarian DOES attack Vaike! Vaike counters and Virion Dual strikes.

Elsewhere, Kellam gets attacked and criticals, not quite enough to kill the barbarian. He levels up, gaining HP, Skill, Lck, and the ever-crucial Def.

Anna does well against a barbarian on her turn. Vaike positions himself to be in range of one of the approaching archers while finishing off the barbarian who attacked him. And FINALLY Vaike gains speed (HP, Str, Spd, Def)!

Henshin takes down the barbarian Kellam nearly killed, using a bronze sword to work towards that ever-important C rank in swords. Kellam advances, still armed with his close-to-breaking javelin (the shop here sells them anyway, no big deal). Maribelle advances upwards, ready to heal Kellam or Henshin next turn, and Lissa heals Sumia, poised to heal Vaike next turn, as he’ll need it. She reaches weapon rank B.

I have virion and Miriel damage one of the two new barbarians now positioned above and below the yonder side of the bridge. I have Sumia finish that one off with her miniature lance so she’s in a position to help Chromzord with a dual strike on the other one. She unfortunately misses both attacks, so Chromzord is forced to finish off that one (with a bronze lance, gotta remember to work on that lance rank, it’ll be important later).

Enemy phase arrives, and a mage attacks Virion with disastrous (for the mage) results. The mage falls easily and Virion takes 10 damage. Virion levels up with a mediocre Skill and Lck, and is now level 10. He now has prescience. The archer attacks Vaike, who counters for exactly half of the archer’s HP. The other archer attacks the sword-wielding Henshin.

Anna suffers an unlucky axe counterattack, but she’ll survive the next enemy phase. However, that barbarian will probably prevent her from healing herself. I gotta get over there quick. Counting movement ranges tells me that as long as Anna can avoid getting hit by the next barbarian, Chromzord should make it there in time.

Kellam criticals the archer, so Henshin sneaks a bit more sword practice in on Vaike’s archer. I hit another event tile and get ANOTHER of Roy’s Blades. Lissa heals Vaike, who finishes off the archer. Miriel attacks a barbarian on the way towards the village, and Sumia finishes him off. Chromzord commences his ride towards the village, landing on an event tile as he does. I get a CATHARSIS. AWESOME! That’s even more powerful than Physic, though with fewer uses. Hell, even if the village burns, I think I’m gonna keep this run. I know that sounds awfully unheroic, but…

AND ANNA MAKES THE KILL! So no worries about the village burning anyway!

Chromzord fells one archer with his bronze lance and levels up (HP, Spd, Lck), while Miriel and Virion sneak damage in on the other archer before Sumia fells it. Only Miriel takes damage, damage Maribelle will take care of next turn. My remaining units head for the bridge to prepare for Victor’s team once it’s on the move.

Maribelle gains an excellent level (Str, Mag, Skill, Spd, Lck, Res) healing Miriel.

Remembering what Interceptor said in his lunatic+ guide about the AI in this level, I have Chromzord face down the lone barbarian heading around the back route and skip the village for now. I wanna make sure everyone’s ready when Victor starts marching.

I look at Victor’s stats and notice he’s just fast enough to double Kellam, which means that tanking with him probably isn’t the best idea. And yet one look at the enemies’ stats and HP makes it clear: I’m not routing that group of four in one turn, and if just two of those units get in range of, say, Sumia, she’s done for. Obviously I’m in trouble, or so I think, until I remember those stat boosting items. If I give Kellam speedwings, he’ll have no trouble tanking at the bridge. Kellam and Chromzord are currently on opposite sides of the map, so I just hope those guys really DO stay put until you visit the village, and there isn’t some kind of turn limit for their patience.

Tensions are high as I move Kellam up the map. If they do decide to move ahead of schedule, I have Sumia poised to grab the village, and I’ll set up a defensive stance on the northeastern island with the two bridges. If for some reason they decide to come at me from both directions, Henshin can easily handle half of them.

They stay put. So I move everyone back over to the bridge by them (because it’s a safer bottleneck point, the other one is way too easy to snipe hiding units on), have Maribelle grab the physic, and cross my fingers.

OH FLYING FUCKFACE ON A MIDNIGHT PIZZA VICTOR CAN WALK ON WATER.

…Alright, calming down, calming down. Two pieces of good news: first, if I ABSOLUTELY MUST, I can have Sumia use her Ephraim Lance to two-shot Victor and then rescue her. So let’s think about this rationally.

The second bit of good news is thanks to Kellam’s stalwart defense, the only people in any danger from Victor, well, I can afford to move them out of his range (which is very limited if he crosses the ocean) and then swarm him next turn with ease. The only problem is that scary-as-shit 7% critical, albeit on a 37% hit for Henshin, but if I move Chromzord, who can easily survive a turn with Victor, beside Henshin, that’s no problem either. And then Solidarity protects Chromzord as well. So alright, I’ll line them up vertically, move everyone else out of the way, and hope for the best!

And roughly the best happens. Victor attacks the thunder-armed Henshin and his considerable HP is now looking not so considerable. A longbow shot and miriel’s dual strike takes him down immediately. Victor retreats. Yes, retreats. I’m letting him live, because there’s no good reason not to bullshit him and Vincent into as many chapters as I want, and I’m giving myself that option. Besides, the villain duo is NEVER killed off in their first appearance on Power Rangers. Virion levels up and gains HP, Spd, and Res. I’d complain about this meh level up, but with that speed he should start doubling stuff and becoming a serious menace, so I’m happy.

Lissa heals Henshin, Miriel kills the archer with a little help from the boosted attack power of Elwind, Kellam lances the iron axe barbarian and levels up (HP, Str, Skill, Def), gaining indoor fighter, and Henshin moves in to attack the steel axe barbarian with his bronze sword, FINALLY reaching sword rank C.

On the counterattack, Kellam dual strikes and criticals, causing Henshin to get a level up (HP, Skill, Lck, Def, there’s my defense levels again, I was starting to get scared), and with that…

CHAPTER COMPLETE!

Supports gained: Miriel reaches B with Virion and C with Henshin, Henshin reaches B with Kellam.

And who should pop up in gratitude for my efforts but Anna, with a steel axe, an arms scroll, and an on-sale master seal for me!

The arms scroll is a luxury I cannot afford at the moment, so I let that pass, but I grab the steel axe, that’ll be a godsend for Vaike’s offensive power in the upcoming chapter, and the on-sale Master Seal gets grabbed instantly.

Alright, with that, until next time!

Looks like thanks to Victor and Vincent I've been forced to change my rules regarding paralogue dialogue. Maybe I'll go back to not doing it on paralogues that don't really merit it, but otherwise, looks like all maps are getting dialogue!

Edited May 26, 2015 by Alastor15243

[Kanethedragon]

Really enjoyable "gamemode". Lovin all that flavor text and whatnot. Now I know this is far from done, but this has got me thinking that when you finish this there should be an eventual follow-up walkthrough of half the game from the kids generation called something cheesy and classical like Rally Rangers Next Generation. Don't know how viable that might be, but it certainly sounds like fun. It'll go something like after the defeat of Grima's first General Gangrel, the Rally Rangers were so wiped and tired from working that they left the rest of their job to their children who inherit the powers to fight evil and all things that are unpleasant. (With the exception of Chromzord due to the requirement of his presence, but he'll just be on standby duty most of the time while Lucinazord takes up his job.) Sounds like it'd be a very fun alternate reality to this run.

[Alastor15243]

Really enjoyable "gamemode". Lovin all that flavor text and whatnot. Now I know this is far from done, but this has got me thinking that when you finish this there should be an eventual follow-up walkthrough of half the game from the kids generation called something cheesy and classical like Rally Rangers Next Generation. Don't know how viable that might be, but it certainly sounds like fun. It'll go something like after the defeat of Grima's first General Gangrel, the Rally Rangers were so wiped and tired from working that they left the rest of their job to their children who inherit the powers to fight evil and all things that are unpleasant. (With the exception of Chromzord due to the requirement of his presence, but he'll just be on standby duty most of the time while Lucinazord takes up his job.) Sounds like it'd be a very fun alternate reality to this run.

Thanks, glad to know people are enjoying this! Interesting idea... depends on how well this one goes...

And as I mentioned before, it does feel deeply, DEEPLY wrong to not include the Justice Cabal in this sort of playthrough, I mean seriously...

Anyway, here's the next entry!

CHAPTER 6

The tome shop reopens, so I buy some tomes while I’m at it. One thunder and then two winds, just to save on some money since the might of first level tomes is utterly negligible. Speaking of saving money, I buy two bronze axes, one bronze sword, one bronze lance, and one bronze bow. Vaike now has a wide variety of axes to choose from. Why two bronze axes, you ask, when only one of my guys can use them right now, and surely they’re the weapon type in least demand? The first axe is for Vaike, so he can save uses on his iron and steel axes for when they’re really necessary and he isn’t just turtling. The second axe is for Lissa in case a risen skirmish appears on the prologue map, THE ONLY PLACE ON THE ENTIRE GODDAMNED PLANET WHERE YOU CAN BUY BRONZE WEAPONS, when Lissa is ready to promote. Alright, onto chapter 6, where, as promised, Vaike will get a chance to catch up!

Somewhere on the surface of the moon, the SFGU base stands menacingly, and within it, generals Gangrel and Validar argue:

Validar: My goodness, Gangrel, how many attempts has this been? A prologue, two paralogues, and five chapters? That totals to eight, EIGHT attempts to crush the Rally Rangers, two of them before they even had FIVE MEMBERS, and ALL OF THEM ENDED IN FAILURE!

Gangrel: That’s enough comments from the peanut-head gallery!

Validar: Peanut-head? PEANUT-HEAD? DOES MY HEAD LOOK LIKE A PEANUT TO YOU?

Gangrel: No, you’re right, I apologize. Now that I look at it, it’s far more of a carrot shape.

Validar: A CARROT!?

Gangrel: No, actually, not that I REEEEALLY get a good look… my goodness, your head looks like quite a LOT of vegetables actually!

Validar: ENOUGH! YOU ARE INCOMPETENT! THAT IS THE POINT OF THIS CONVERSATION! YOU ARE INCOMPETENT! YOU LACK COMPETENCE! YOU ARE STUPID!

Gangrel: Oh? And I suppose YOU could do better?

Validar: EASILY! I shall march my forces straight to Ylisstol and assassinate their beloved Emmeryn immediately!

Gangrel: Go ahead and do that! I’ll be standing here, watching and laughing as you fail!

Validar: You better remember that sentence, write it out on the side of a six foot sub, and keep it ready for when the mission is over, because then I’m going to make you EAT YOUR WORDS!

Back in Ylisstol…

Emmeryn: Well done, Rally Rangers. Rally Red, Rally Blue, Rally Yellow, Rally Orange, Rally Green, Rally Violet, Rally Cyan, Rally Silver… the Rally Rangers are almost complete, with just two members remaining to be found: Rally Black, and Rally Pink! Go forth and find these two, and when all ten Rally Rangers and Chromzord stand before me, I shall explain to you your purpose and ultimate mission!

(Everyone but Henshin cheers)

Emmeryn: What’s wrong Henshin?

Henshin: (distractedly) sorry, what?

Emmeryn: I know you have your doubts about your destiny…

Soldier: SHUN THE NONBELIEVER!

Emmeryn: PEACE! …But I promise you in time you will-

Henshin: Your grace? For once in the entire time I’ve been a part of this group… that isn’t the problem.

Emmeryn: …You hear the footsteps too, don’t you?

Henshin: Yes.

Emmeryn: Then it is as I feared.

Emmeryn: Rally Rangers! We are under attack! The Shadowy Forces of General Unpleasantness have breached the castle!

Chromzord: DEFEND HER GRACE AT ALL COSTS!

Right! Let’s begin!

And in the space between starting this segment and getting around to writing the rest of the script for it, the risen left ferox, WENT BACK TO THE TOME SHOP, and another merchant popped up! Hm… Steel bow, Elthunder, Elixir. All things I would want to get eventually, might as well get them now. I’m well set for weapons for a while. I ignore the elixir though, as I already have one, and there can’t be TOO heavy a need for them.

Back to the preparations map for chapter 6.

All 9 of my characters are deployed. I have a fairly simple setup here. On the west side I have Chromzord in his force-deploy spot, Sumia in the spot two above, and in the remaining three spots, each coincidentally in melee, magic and longbow range of the fighter by Lucinazord. I put Vaike, Miriel and Virion in these three spots respectively. On the other side, I put Kellam, Henshin, Lissa, and then I put Maribelle in the leftmost slot so that she can start racing over to assist Vaike before he starts getting in serious danger. Vaike is going to be attempting to guard the dangerous center opening, and if I’m careful, this should work out.

On second thought (Just thought I’d share my thought process), it’s not a huge trek from the east side to the center opening, so I’ll have Lissa, my more durable healer, do that, since Vaike will have fewer openings for moving forward and thus whoever is healing him will be in more danger.

Vaike gets a str and def tonic, I make sure both Lissa and Maribelle have vulneraries, and I think it’s time to go!

Alright, I’m allowed to recruit Gaius and use him in this chapter, but past that he’s off limits. Ah well. Pity the treasure chest I’m allowed to let him unlock just contains a secret book, one of the least useful stat up items.

BATTLE BEGIN!

(one of those “pay attention to this” markers appears over Lucinazord)

Henshin: is that… is that that robot Flavia made us fight?

Emmeryn: Yes. I acquired her and have repurposed her as a castle guard. She will assist you.

Henshin: Very well!

Well surprise surprise, Virion could easily one-shot that fighter, but I wanna give the kill to Vaike, and thankfully he and Miriel can do the job without Virion’s help. Miriel levels up, gaining HP, Mag, Spd and Res. Hey, another good level up from her! Vaike finishes the fighter off without incident. I position Chromzord (armed with his bronze lance for lance training) and Sumia just outside of Gaius’s attack range, side by side. Virion I move over towards Miriel and Vaike. Henshin and Kellam stand side by side at the northern edge of the eastern staircase, and enemy phase begins.

The western fighter attacks Sumia for heavy damage, Sumia fails to kill him because Chromzord doesn’t dual strike. Henshin and Kellam fare better against their enemies, and a thief (who disconcertingly can double both Vaike and Henshin) fails to unleash his second attack on Vaike because of a lucky DS from Miriel. Vaike levels up (HP, Str, Spd).

Due to my planning, there is no healer at hand to deal with Sumia’s injury. Thankfully Panne arrives with a handy concoction! Panne trades, Chromzord moves down one to both talk to Gaius and kill the fighter Sumia failed to, and Sumia uses the concoction to heal.

…Except she can’t, because I had Panne trade the concoction from one side of that wall, and the nearby dark mage can easily attack her across it (making the universe explode). Thankfully there are only dark mages nearby, who do pathetic damage to Sumia anyway, so Sumia goes out with her 7 HP and attacks the dark mage who is in range of Panne.

Sumia does it with ease, and would have even without Chromzord’s superfluous (and comical, since he was slightly floating off the balcony as he did it) critical dual strike. She unfortunately gets a quite poor level up (just Res), but I’m not too worried.

Maribelle heals Vaike, Lissa heals Miriel back to full after her HP increase, and Lissa levels up (Mag, Lck). Defenses are holding fine so far.

Next turn the cavalry start reaching us. Vaike finishes off a thief and gains a great level (HP, Str, Skill, Spd, Def) and gets the ability Zeal.

In a risky move, but not wanting to waste two longbow shots merely for the attack power, I position Panne so that she’s just barely out of the reach of all enemies who, if all goes well, will still be alive next turn, right behind Chromzord, where she deposits her beaststone and withdraws the merchant-acquired steel bow for Virion to use to kill that annoying dark mage. I REALLY should’ve put that steel bow on Virion to begin with. Hindsight.

Chromzord then uses Roy’s blade to kill one of the cavaliers, and Sumia uses the concoction beside him. Lissa heals Vaike to almost full (would’ve been full except he gained one more HP this turn), Henshin and Kellam finish of the wounded enemies who attacked them last turn, and it’s on to enemy phase.

Chromzord levels up during the enemy phase (Str, Skill, Spd, Lck) as does Henshin (HP, Skill, Lck)

Things continue holding for Vaike, Maribelle heals Chromzord. Kellam gets an odd but very welcome level up (HP, Str, Spd, Res) and reaches lance rank B.

Validar is now on the move.

I start regrouping my units so that wherever Validar strikes, everyone will be there to take him down as quickly as possible. I heal Sumia from a rather nasty wound from a steel axe with Maribelle (who levels up poorly, Skill, Lck)

Realizing that the dark mage has put Kellam in a bit of a tight spot, I elect to have Kellam and Henshin double back so Kellam can be healed. Since Vaike can’t get healed this turn because of this, I have Miriel move in to protect him after Vaike kills the last fighter, leaving nothing but two dark mages. Vaike can survive the melee attack of one, and the other one won’t be able to do much to Miriel. That is if it survives a round of combat with Miriel. Which it doesn’t. Vaike jumped in for a dual strike and leveled up, gaining HP, Str, Skill, Spd and Def. Wow, Vaike’s turning out to be GREAT!

Henshin doubles back for Lissa to heal, and she trades his vulnerary to her too so that Kellam can take it and heal with it without breaking formation.

A dual strike from Henshin means the dark mage is history, leaving just the steel axe fighter, the dark mage, and Validar.

I attempt to kill the dark mage with Miriel, relying on a dual strike from Vaike. No such luck, so Vaike gets out of the way and Virion has the honor of killing the dark mage.

As for the steel axe fighter, Kellam breaks rank to weaken him and Henshin finishes him off, leaving time to heal everyone before Validar arrives.

I’m rather paranoid of that 2-5% crit chance on pretty much everyone in my party, but because I’m a genius moderately clever Fire Emblem veteran, I come up with a plan to make sure that NOBODY risks getting fatally critted.

First I have Virion attack Validar with his trusty longbow from a slight angle, so that two adjacent tiles are at 2-range of Validar, AND as a bonus he’s next to Miriel for a 46% chance of a DS… which does not happen. No matter. I then move Henshin over to one of the aforementioned tiles adjacent to Virion, specifically the one that has Sumia next to it. Virion’s C support with Henshin gives him JUST enough adjacent supports to get the +10 dodge needed to be immune to Validar’s crit chance, and I attack him with my Levin sword, the only magical weapon I have capable of doing much damage to this guy. And now we’re in the clear, because Henshin’s solidarity protects both Chromzord and Sumia from any critical damage, allowing me to go in with Sumia for the kill without fear. And Sumia levels up (Str, Spd, Lck, Res, much more like it) and gets relief!

CHAPTER COMPLETE!

Another shop opens up, not much of interest there, but I buy a couple of mag and res tonics just in case.

Supports: Chromzord and Sumia reach rank A, Lissa and Vaike reach rank C, Vaike and Miriel reach rank B.

[Flamy]

Hang on a dangblasted minute, how're you gonna survive Chapter 7? That's full of enemies surrounding two non-Rally Rangers!