Alastor plays and ranks the whole series! Mission Complete! ...For now.

[samthedigital]

4 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

Much as I liked playing the map straight, cheesing it is truer to Thracia, and probably safer in an ironman. Although if you can afford to, it might be worth it to Astra Storm the one that drops the Speedwings.

I'm not sure exactly how much Alastor wants in the way of spoilers; so I will refrain myself as much as possible, but first turn warp skipping isn't the only solution to cheesing the chapter's gimmicks completely.

[Jotari]

14 hours ago, lenticular said:

In my current game I'm running Alear as a staff-bot with convoy access, and even when I don't have to worry about inventory slots, I still haven't had cause to use a Fracture staff yet (though I do like the idea of using it against the wyrms). It's not just competing for an inventory slot but also for the use of a turn. And a lot of the time, there's no functional difference between "Fracture and then attack" and "attack, take damage, then heal it back with Mend". Except that you have to hope Fracture hits, and you don't get the chance of the enemy missing, etc. Sure, the exact circumstances could come up sometimes, but only rarely.

It also doesn't help that Maddening bosses are immune to being broken. As enemies who take multiple hits to kill and can dish out a lot of damage in return, they'd be prime targets to hit with Fracture, but the game doesn't allow that.

Very true. This ties back to what was said earlier about Vulneries being more useful, a lot of it because staff bots have just so much more to do. If Fracture affected bosses it would definitely have a specific reason to use it outside of dragons. I also think it would be a lot more useful if it had Micaiah's splash effect from base, so it's intended to break a crowd of units (and then increase that spalsh effect even further when actually pairing it with Mickey.

[Jotari]

17 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

…Oh shit, is this where we fought Reinhardt!?

We faced Saias here apparently, which we definitely also did at that time, so signs point to yes!

Leif totally given Cowen, the actual boss of that chapter (and the only one without a localized name) no props here. At least the map itself as a unit refencing him....even if it means giving an enemy weapons they can't use.

17 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Thracia Warp Shenanigans planning

Wow. That's quite a planning stage. When I said I cheesed it I didn't mean I one turned it. I'll say what I did after the map is finished.

17 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

PS: Given that Dire Thunder is apparently a thing in this game judging by what people in the thread have been saying, I'm really surprised I didn't see any of the mage knights equipped with it.

That would involve giving generic enemies bond rings.

 

17 hours ago, Acacia Sgt said:

  Hide contents

Using Warp, I had Ivy finish off the guy manning the ballista nearest to Leif. Then, I had her fly behind the castle. There's tiles back there but only fliers can reach them. This triggers Leif and the forces near him to move, and destroys the western bridge. So what did I did? After clearing the enemies on my side of the river (using Sigurd to rush to the guy manning the south ballista), I simply parked my units at the riverbank where the bridge used to be and... let the enemies come to me. Thanks to the shoals, they were handicapped in both move and avoid. So I basically did Doga proud. I CHOKE THE POINT.

Meanwhile, from behind the castle, Ivy could Elthunder (no Thoron yet since I did this fresh from Chapter 17) the Cowen stand-in. Then, to avoid Leif moving over to where the rest of my team was, I had her fly back out and fight the few enemies that stayed put, including the Saias stand-in. This would make Leif run back to the castle. Then when he had come close enough, I had Ivy fly back behind the castle, making him go back towards my main party. So I had Leif running back and forth while the rest of his army suicided against mine on the shoals. I did this until reinforcements ran out. After that, I just had Ivy solo Leif. Since I had Lyn equipped on her, I could have her use the ballista as well.

Overall... this was one heck of ride, heh. I pretty much cheesed it... but it was so much fun! XD

 

I did something similar.

Spoiler

Instead of luring Leif back to the castle, I basically just manipulated the AI of the mage knights to keep on trying to kill Ivy by placing her in their range over the water. So they stayed around the area of the castle, while Leif, who doesn't have the 3 range to be aggroed against Ivy, charged me single handedly and got swiftly killed without back up. You're method sounds like it'd take longer, but at least would result in a lot more exp.

Also, Alastor, have you noticed their are other enemies with items to kill in this map? They try to flee right away, so you have to brave the ballista and try to take em out quickly to get their items.

 

 

 

[Alastor15243]

Hey, uh, so...

...Sorry, I don't think there's going to be a part today. I just played the game undocked for the first time in a while, and that made me notice that my Switch fan is rattling a bit. I'm trying to work out what's wrong with it and maybe get it repaired, because if there's a problem with the fan that could be a problem for the whole thing eventually.

 

Edit: I'm tentatively proceeding because the noise stopped after I put some compressed air into it, but I'm cautious because I didn't really see any dust come out. I'll keep you posted if something goes wrong.

Edited February 25, 2023 by Alastor15243

[Alastor15243]

Okay, spoiler alert: The noise came back. I'm taking a rain check today to get this checked out and see if it's a big deal, but I suppose I might as well post what I managed to write up in the midst of all this:

 

Engage Day 33: Chapter 20

Aaaaaalright, bullet, meet teeth.

I’ve got a bit of a weirder setup today because I don’t have my capture card with me, just the Switch itself on my desk that I’m constantly picking up and putting down. Hopefully that doesn’t have a negative impact on my playlogging time for some reason, but who knows?

…Oh wow, the music sounds weird now that it isn’t coming through headphones. I’m way more used to it through headphones lately, and…

…is that… a sickly-sounding rattle coming from my fan?

…Wow, that… could be a pretty nasty problem I wanna get on top of.

Sorry, BRB, looking for some compressed air.

…That… didn’t visibly do anything… but the noise did stop… for now…

…Alright, let’s continue and keep an ear out for it.

Another thing I’m going to be on the lookout for when testing Clanne is how Illume works. It didn’t boost the range of rewarp from zero, so I’m not all that optimistic about it changing anything, but if it did, that would be awesome.

I’m buying torches at the shop, and it just occurred to me that the shop doesn’t have any sort of “sort by sections” feature like the armory has. You have to wade through the staff options before you find the items. Not overly inconvenient, but enough of an inconvenience that it feels like an oversight not to sort at least between staves and consumables.

…Oh shit.

I can’t deploy my full army, just barely. I thankfully just barely noticed when I couldn’t find Seadall. I have to drop someone.

I’m dropping Rosado for Seadall. Rosado doesn’t bring enough unique utility to this map to justify the risk of losing him to the odd archer in the dark. I’ll have to be careful with Hortensia and to a lesser extent Ivy (she has Hold Out), but they’re staff users and highly handy to have around. And Seadall will be crucial given how many actions I’m likely to expend just lighting the place up on turn one.

Alright, quick check for anything terrifying in the enemy ranks that I didn’t see before, before the lights go out.

A killer axe warrior by the treasure room, noted…

…Griss has excalibur, an anti-flier tome… he’ll have a power of 64 when attacking fliers, which fortunately is not enough to one-shot Hortensia or Ivy.

I just bought 11 HP tonics, for use with all of my deployed units. I’d just like that extra little cushion of assurance here.

Alright, let’s go.

…We’re still using Lythos music. That, uh… hardly seems appropriate for a fog of war mission deep in enemy territory. Honestly I was hoping to see Tear Streaked again.

…And Griss just fucking dipped.

…He’s disappeared.

So he could just be… fucking anywhere. At all times.

…But wait.

…It’s Ragnarok Warp.

Not Warp Ragnarok.

…Which means if I can catch him… and freeze him with the freeze staff… or even just engage with Yunaka and immobilize him and then dance Yunaka away… he can’t attack anyone, and therefore can’t warp away! I can keep him in place!

But I have to keep in mind that there are treasures on this map, so I’ve gotta get to them before I kill him.

…Damn it, this is gonna be frustrating. Needless to say, nobody not named Yunaka or Kagetsu is taking point here, and even with them I’m going to be extremely on-guard.

…Fuck, what’s his speed? What’s his speed what’s his speed!? I totally forgot how slow Louis is! What if Griss can double him!?

…Well, plus side:

I now know how warp works with Micaiah.

…It doesn’t increase the range for selecting targets, only the range for selecting destinations.

That is… a let-down, and it complicates my plans a great deal. Especially since it means that the warper has to be among the warping party, assuming that fifth slot can even fit anyone at all. For all I know when you use warp, Clanne still stays behind despite being in the plus.

Aaaaaaaaaaand my fan’s still making weird noises when the game starts getting more demanding, which it did once I attempted to astra storm that entrap enemy.

Okay, sorry guys, I’m gonna have to take a rain check on this. Gotta go into the store and get this thing checked out. We’ll pick this up tomorrow, hopefully. I’ll keep you posted.

Alastor, signing off.

[Acacia Sgt]

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Okay, sorry guys, I’m gonna have to take a rain check on this. Gotta go into the store and get this thing checked out. We’ll pick this up tomorrow, hopefully. I’ll keep you posted.

Oh man, hopefully it is nothing serious.

Regarding Griss, there is a certain detail to him in this fight.

Spoiler

His warping destinations apparently aren't random. So if you know them ahead of time, you can plan accordingly.

 

[Alastor15243]

Update time:

 

I went to the repair shop (and was surprised at how antsy I got when the guy immediately opened up to my ironman file without permission) and the rattling failed to happen for them, so now I have to play until it happens again, record it when it happens, then take it in. I think I'm gonna take a few days off from the playlog since I have no idea what I can guarantee about when I can resolve this and my current location makes going to the repair shop less convenient than it normally would be. I'll aim to get it repaired by Monday and restart on Tuesday.

[Eltosian Kadath]

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

…And Griss just fucking dipped.

 

…He’s disappeared.

 

So he could just be… fucking anywhere. At all times.

At least they let you get a look at him in the preps, to see what stat benchmarks you might need, and dangerous weapons he might have before vanishing into the dark...

 

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

 

Aaaaaaaaaaand my fan’s still making weird noises when the game starts getting more demanding, which it did once I attempted to astra storm that entrap enemy.

 

Okay, sorry guys, I’m gonna have to take a rain check on this. Gotta go into the store and get this thing checked out. We’ll pick this up tomorrow, hopefully. I’ll keep you posted.

 

Alastor, signing off.

That is a bit disappointing, but understandable. Hopefully your Switch makes it out of this OK.

 

39 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

 

Regarding Griss, there is a certain detail to him in this fight.

  Hide contents

His warping destinations apparently aren't random. So if you know them ahead of time, you can plan accordingly.

 

 

Spoiler

That is legitimately disappointing, kinda kills the whole gimmick on future playthroughs

 

[Acacia Sgt]

7 minutes ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

 

  Reveal hidden contents

That is legitimately disappointing, kinda kills the whole gimmick on future playthroughs

 

 

Spoiler

Considering he only does it twice before just parking himself on the Healing Tile... yeah, feels a bit of a waste. I suppose they didn't wanted it to be fully annoying, having to chase him down on an AoE map, so if it was truly random...

 

[Jotari]

Personally I really like this Griss fight. I can see how it'd be pretty damn annoying for an iron man, but this is one part of the game that just works  much better with rewinds in play. As, after he snipes you, you then know where in the darkness he is and can make informed decisions about how to approach him with a rewind. It also just generally makes him a more interesting encounter than just a stat stick on a map that you have to deal with.

[Alastor15243]

I've been continuing my Maddening file on these off days while I'm waiting to see if the rattle comes back, and I just re-watched the scene where Zephia meets Alear. So she does realize Alear looks familiar, but gives no reaction whatsoever to hearing Alear's name. Curious. Verrrry curious. Either it means something, or it's just the game's being dumb. It's always fun making bets on that, when a story gets bad enough that you just barely can't tell if something that doesn't make sense is a sign of a plothole or a plot twist.

Edited February 26, 2023 by Alastor15243

[Acacia Sgt]

You know, recently I found out... we can actually see Pale Sands on the world map. East of the Chapter 12 node, there is a small area walled off by mountains that is, well, paler in color than the rest of Solm.

[Alastor15243]

3 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

You know, recently I found out... we can actually see Pale Sands on the world map. East of the Chapter 12 node, there is a small area walled off by mountains that is, well, paler in color than the rest of Solm.

Yeah, I noticed that and unless I'm mistaken I even mentioned it at some point. Kinda cool the sands are actually pale, from a worldbuilding perspective. Of course the "why" of it probably has no canonical answer given the writing.

[Jotari]

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

I've been continuing my Maddening file on these off days while I'm waiting to see if the rattle comes back, and I just re-watched the scene where Zephia meets Alear. So she does realize Alear looks familiar, but gives no reaction whatsoever to hearing Alear's name. Curious. Verrrry curious. Either it means something, or it's just the game's being dumb. It's always fun making bets on that, when a story gets bad enough that you just barely can't tell if something that doesn't make sense is a sign of a plothole or a plot twist.

Well even when talking to Sombron about his child with flaming red hair, she says "I remember one", suggesting she didn't really know or much care about their name even back in the day.

[Acacia Sgt]

Considering Sombron himself didn't, I bet most others, Zephia included, also didn't bothered.

[Alastor15243]

Alright, I'll be starting up again tomorrow. It made the sound again, but my phone's microphone categorically failed to pick the sound up, which made me decide that if it's that quiet of a rattle, maybe I'm being overly paranoid about how badly this really needs to be fixed. I'm going to keep an eye on it to see if it gets worse, but I won't be holding up the playlog any longer in fear that'll keep me from noticing my Switch having a meltdown.

[Alastor15243]

Just did Chapter 5 on Maddening.

Lost Alfred and Etie within the first three turns.

Wound up huddling like a coward in the treasure vault as Louis was the only thing keeping the shockingly powerful Nelucce from destroying my army.

Learned that backup units will not attack if they can't do damage, but will still swarm for chain pain.

Had a moment of terror where I realized items don't activate Canter and Louis couldn't return to the choke point after restocking on vulneraries and using one. Threw Vander into the fire to plug the hole, praying he'd survive (he did).

Wore Framme's heal staff down to a nub and realized I was mistaken about having bought more.

Nearly got sandwiched between two sets of forces because in my hubris I had Vander open the lower doors simultaneously with my main group opening the side wall, only Clanne and Chloé's decisive intervention saved the day.

Survived through sheer cowardice, attrition, and abusing my only real wall, and even then every new turn brought about a new problem I had to fix.

It was awesome.

Edited February 27, 2023 by Alastor15243

[joeygreedy]

Oh yeah, I remember doing chapter 5 on maddening the first time. After chapter 4 was seemingly a breeze with Etie oneshotting fliers, Celine nuking units and Louis holding up the fort, it feels almost like chapter 4 was for luring you into a false sense of superiority before chapter 5 has Nelucce, who comes with cavaliers and also mage reinforcements ( Who One-Round Louis ) swarming you as soon as you aggro them, ready to crush your spirit. I ended up losing Alfred, Clanne and nearly lost Vandar, and this was AFTER turnwheeling away because trying to hold the center room by bashing in the door, and instead switching to trying to hold the left breakable walls, before finally relying on ol'reliable 1-tile wide corridor to funnel enemies into a killzone. 

And don't get me started on Chapter 10, or 19, or Eirika's paralogue. Hoooooo

 

  

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Learned that backup units will not attack if they can't do damage, but will still swarm for chain pain.

Maddening does funny things to the enemy AI. Since enemies won't attack you if they can't hurt you, like dealing 0 damage or having 0% chance to hit with no Chain attackers nearby, they will just run past your unit. This has lead to funny situations like a whole group of wolf knights running past my general, berserkers just ignoring my thief, etc.

Also, they will ALWAYS, if possible, go for the kill if they see an available one. This leads moments they run 6 tiles away to oneshot the Hortensia instead of even attempting to attack the Vandar that would require 2 units to kill.

Not sure if this applies if there needs to be 3 different units landing an attack on a single unit to murder them, but there are 3+ allies in the area. Either way, maddening AI is scary.

Oh, and mid-late game, heroes have Brave Assist, and they will happily position themselves near a unit before the 3rd attacks for 0 damage, with 4x5 + 0x2 chain attacks happening, then another ranged unit attacks for 6x5 + 0x2. then another for 8x5 + 0x2 and your general is dead, from units that would have dealt 0 damage. But I do recall Pair up from Corrin helping to negate it. Not sure if they will attack into 0x0 units with pair up, so even your dodgetanks have to perfectly position their avoid at sub-10s to bait enemies, without baiting too many enemies or lose positioning and get chain attacked to death. 

Engage/10 would suffer again, but screw you game, for seeming to make your units always a few HP short of a kill. 

[Jotari]

1 hour ago, joeygreedy said:

Also, they will ALWAYS, if possible, go for the kill if they see an available one. This leads moments they run 6 tiles away to oneshot the Hortensia instead of even attempting to attack the Vandar that would require 2 units to kill.

Lyn's shadow clones seem to be bizarrely inconsistent on that side. It seems like some enemies gun straight towards them, while other enemies ignore them.

1 hour ago, joeygreedy said:

Not sure if they will attack into 0x0 units with pair up, so even your dodgetanks have to perfectly position their avoid at sub-10s to bait enemies, without baiting too many enemies or lose positioning and get chain attacked to death.

This is something else that seems inconsistent. It seems sometimes enemies will attack a unit with skyhigh avoid if they can crowd them, while other times they ignore completely. They definitely still feel more inclined if they can perform chain attack even if Corrin renders it pointless, but sometimes even when there are no backup units I've had my dodge tank crowded by enemies who can't damage them while other times they've been completely ignored.

[Alastor15243]

Engage Day 34: Chapter 20 (For Real This Time)

Alright, sorry about all that bullshit! Time to get back to this! But fun fact, something I learned playing my ironman Maddening file (which has so rapidly turned into sheer chaos that part of me sorely wishes I did the ironman on Maddening difficulty): if you don’t have enough units to fill up all the deployment slots on the map… the empty spaces for units to go on the map don’t show up. If you have 8 units for a 10 unit map, you can’t put your units in the 9^th or 10^th unit starting spaces, because those spaces won’t appear at all. And, funny enough… it occurs to me that I don’t think I’ve ever been in a position to check if any other game in the entire series does this.

Probably doesn’t bode well for that file, but whatever, right now we’re worried about this one!

Anyway, I open up with an Astra Storm boosted by Pepsiman’s aura, just barely enough to kill the entrap lady. Now to secure the sides of this opening room, killing the starting enemies.

Done. Now to experiment with Illume while Micaiah-engaged. True, it doesn’t let you use it on a distant space, but it might increase that 7-space illumination to 12 or something awesome like that. Or, bare minimum, activate itself on the adjacent tiles so that the range at least increases by one.

...It was the former. It increases the illumination of Illume to fucking twelve.

THANK YOU. THANK YOU ANNA, MOTHER OF ANNA, FOR YOUR MERCY!

…But unfortunately Griss was hiding on the side of the room I had not spent as many resources on. If I knew Illume was going to be so insane on Micaiah, doubtless I would have had Clanne use it in the center to light up the whole thing turn one. Thankfully he only attacked Kagetsu, and while that 32 damage was terrifying (I have to keep that number in mind and look at Kagetsu’s resistance to make sure I know how much damage Ragnarok Warp does because the skill description doesn’t fucking tell you), nobody else can do anywhere near close enough damage to threaten him, even if they could hit him. Which most can’t.

…Okay, actually, now that I know how utterly broken Micaiah-Illume is, I’m barely scared of this map at all. I can see Griss coming from miles away and secure blind spots with ease. Honestly, the biggest danger is killing him too quickly, and failing to get the treasure. …Actually no, not even that! He’s immune to counterattacks and then he warps away! I just have to make sure the people I send to bait him into teleporting away again (so he doesn’t get too close to my party) can take a hit.

…Weirdly, the enemies aren’t dousing the torches. Figured they would. Wonder why they aren’t?

Okay, Ragnarok Warp did 17 damage to Clanne, who has 30 res, and 32 damage to Kagetsu, who has 20. Which naturally doesn’t add up, so obviously the mystic multiplier is in play. However, the good news is that Yunaka has 30 res too, so I should expect Yunaka to only need to worry about taking 17 damage if she runs into Griss in a dark alley. Which means she can rush headlong towards the treasure with minimal concern.

And I’m glad that’s the case, because she did, in fact, run directly into Griss.

But that just means I know he’s not where Kagetsu is! Score!

…How does Ragnarok Warp do 17 damage to Clanne… and 22 damage to Yunaka… when they have the same fucking res?

Okay, so, the two treasures stolen so far are a rescue and a brave bow. I want that fucking brave bow, obviously, so I’m gonna do my best to make sure that thief dies. Thankfully, I know that thieves try to get all the chests in the area before they try to escape, and you get all of their treasure when you kill them. I know this due to the shitshow that was my Chapter 5 Maddening attempt.

Oh hey, I missed Griss for long enough to hear the normal map music again! But not for long! Griss has just been uncovered in the dark!

Very nearly got Clanne killed going for an energy tile that turned out to be near a bunch of wolf knights, one with a crit-boosting melee knife, but thankfully Framme was able to pull him out of the fire with a warp staff Pepsiman gave her and simultaneously bring him back in range of Seadall so Clanne could take advantage that energy tile this very turn and go back to lighting things the fuck up.

Alright, the treasures are almost secure. If all else fails I can have Alcryst Astra Storm the thief to finish the job.

…Looks like Griss is tired of Ragnarok-Warping around me, and has returned to the boss tile he started on.

…I half-expected the game to sneakily change his skill back to Warp Ragnarok, but no, it’s still Ragnarok Warp.

…Goldmary had a weirdly and suddenly-raw “I’m not a child anymore” kill line, which made me start thinking she might have some serious issues with coddling that had a role in her spoiled, narcissistic personality… until I remembered she was engaging with Leif at the time, and thus it was a Leif line.

…Which means, theoretically, I could make characters like Anna and Jean say that. Which would be hysterical. As would putting it on Vander, come to think of it.

So the total treasure haul is a rescue, a brave bow, a silver blade and a secret book. Okay. Time to take out Griss.

Checkmate, Griss moved with his lackeys, now he’s going down.

I almost screwed myself due to overestimating my ability to defeat his lackeys, but a quick Micaiah-boosted rescue later to bring Pepsiman back from grabbing the chest, and he was free to goddess dance Kagetsu to take out his third HP bar as well as his first and second.

…And Griss survived the battle. But then, as I was very recently reminded… so did Nelucce. And it’s getting pretty late in the game…

…At any rate, I just hope we get Celica back.

And I cleared the whole thing in 8 turns! Woo!

…We got Celica back, but Griss seems to be trying to bait us into summoning Celica for some reason.

…And Pepsiman… like… just… doesn’t even react to this, and does it anyway.

PLEASE LET ME KEEP CELICA FOR THE LOVE OF GOD

…It seems I do. But… Griss… oh shit. This was part of the “intelligence gathering” he mentioned earlier. I think he just figured out Pepsiman isn’t a real divine dragon just by watching him summon Celica.

…I’m completely alone in this cutscene. Why?

…Okay, that reaction to Griss just flat-out telling him he’s the child of Sombron was… amazingly weak. Like, I was reminded of the infamous “Shadow… Android? Am I… an android too?” from Shadow the Hedgehog.

…But that’s a cool twist, having it turn out that only Fell Dragons say those magic words to summon from the rings.

Pepsiman believes this way too readily though. He has absolutely no way to confirm or deny anything Griss says here. None. All the Divine Dragons are dead except him. Maybe there’s a book somewhere, but right now, in this moment, nothing Griss is saying here is confirmable, and yet he’s taking it like it’s been proven.

Apparently those 8 turns and this cutscene were enough to buy time for Sombron and Veyle to leave. Griss considers that and the knowledge that Pepsiman is Sombron’s kid to be worth it. I wonder what value that is to the enemy? Can Sombron pull any mind control bullshit knowing this?

So Alfred and Ivy show up, and tell him not to take his claims so seriously, and stay calm. And then Diamant and Timerra come in, pointing out we also only have Griss’s word that the distraction was even long enough, which is a very good point that hadn’t occurred to me.

…They searched the place, and it is indeed deserted. Fuck.

…And now Pepsiman realizes what that dream he had between Chapters 2 and 3 meant, and he’s terrified he might relapse at any time and go postal on all of his friends.

And Pepsiman just straight-up asks Sigurd if he’s a Fell Dragon, and he says yes. And Alfred is shocked and staggers back.

…And oh shit, Pepsiman just pointed out that since he isn’t actually a divine dragon, he probably doesn’t have the power to seal Sombron like Lumera did.

…Hang on…

…Why is he weak to wyrmslayers?

Corrupted wyrms aren’t weak to wyrmslayers, and I’m pretty sure when we fought Veyle, she wasn’t either, though I’d need to check again.

But Sigurd reminds him that Lumera gave him the power of a Divine Dragon, and confirms that regardless of intention, Emblems summoned with Fell power can’t have free will. Meaning he is using Divine power when he does it. That must’ve been the point of what Lumera told him about the intentions behind summoning being important back in Chapter 2.

Also, the musical transition in this part was, like in Chapter 11, fantastic.

Ivy: Conflicted as I might be, I am made resolute by the terror I feel at losing you.

…Okay, I can’t describe why, but having seen some of her supports with Pepsiman, I love that line.

AND I JUST GOT 50 THOUSAND FUCKING GOLD FROM ELUSIA LET’S GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

It’s nice that Clanne and Framme get lines here in this exploration scene assuring Pepsiman that this changes nothing. But seriously, it would’ve been cool if Lythos as a nation were even remotely fleshed out and this actually threw the place into chaos.

…And now Mauvier shows up after I leave, begging Pepsiman to save Veyle, feeling that now that it’s confirmed he’s Veyle’s brother, that that’ll be what it takes to get through to her. And also he says Sombron and Veyle are headed to Lythos, though Mauvier can’t explain why.

…But fuck it, we have Celica now! Okay, let’s see…

…Oh shit! Nice! When it comes to Warp Ragnarok, mystical units might get a bonus to the Ragnarok, but fliers get a boost to the Warp! So giving it to Ivy is still an awesome choice! Especially since she’s amazing at single-target damage.

…Also, I’m gonna be dropping Framme fairly soon. I think it’s time. Her stats are pretty pathetic, despite the fact that she’s been consistently seeing use and getting staff exp for ages. I think I’ll be having Mauvier replace her when we get him. And he might be a good candidate for Roy too. Which only leaves who to give Marth…

…The only Emblem-free unit we have left is Hortensia. And I thiiiiiiiiiiiink I have an idea what to do with her.

What if I gave her Micaiah, to make best use of her personal skill (albeit at the cost of wasting Micaiah’s staff-use-granting power), and then gave Clanne Marth? True, as a cavalry unit he can’t make use of the mystic bonus turning Lodestar Rush into a magic attack… but he can do that anyway if he just uses Lodestar Rush while using a levin sword!

It could work. I’ll have to check it out once I have Marth.

Which I suspect is going to be next map, if we’re actually saving Veyle here.

…Actually, for now, since I don’t have anyone better to give Roy to, I’m putting Roy on Ivy and Celica on Hortensia.

…Okay, I got what I came for. Pepsiman has enough SP to get Canter+, and I now know that warp doesn’t work the way I’d hope it would. Meaning now it’s time to work out how the hell to do Leif’s paralogue.

And then probably do Celica’s right after.

Okay, back to base for cleanup.

First off, Seadall and Lucina’s B.

Seadall asked Lucina what she thought of his dancing, being someone from an extremely remote culture to his own. She gave a bit of a lame non-answer.

Oh shit, Goldmary’s cooking tonight! Let’s see what she’s got for us!

…Rank D. So we just got the base 2 speed from the salmon. Shit. I was hoping to finally get something above what tonics can do. Damn it.

Oh nice! Goldmary fought Lapis again and got the sequel to their support chain! Let’s see how that turns out!

…Looks like we might have a lot today.

Clanne and Louis’s A.

…This is kind of weird… being told about the great support conversation we missed because we’re watching a support about the guy who watched the support.

Louis is… profoundly weird. Like, this is really bringing his social voyeur tendencies to… um… “new heights”, shall we say?

Clanne out of context: Thanks for the support, Louis!

Framme and Kagetsu’s B.

So in continuation of their C, Kagetsu decided he does want to write to his parents. How are these letters being sent, incidentally? Courier? Ravens? Pegasi? Does Pale Sands even have mailing routes with the rest of the world, if it’s so insular?

Ivy and Louis’s B.

…Shit, I don’t remember much of what their C was about, but Louis seems to have taken Ivy people-watching.

PFFFFFFFFF

Ivy’s restrained and yet biting snark is amazing.

Louis: What do you think, Princess Ivy? Does the sight of a pleasant gathering prompt any feelings?

Ivy: No. Nothing.

Louis: How strange. I, for my part, find great comfort in their mundane joys and idle chatter.

Ivy: It would seem that phenomenon is unique to you.

…Right, was this the one where someone wanted to make Ivy smile? Well Louis seems to have succeeded.

Kagetsu and Seadall’s A.

Kagetsu nearly got attacked by bears because he didn’t realize his training ground was set up near multiple bear dens.

And Kagetsu got out unscathed, and thanks Seadall for his prediction making him paranoid and less likely to dismiss potential danger than usual. So it looks like Seadall managed to save someone with his divination after all!

Goldmary and Lapis’s B.

Apparently… Lapis’s advice worked! I wasn’t expecting that!

Also, it just occurred to me: I think that Lapis’s pink hair and sudden switch to tomboyish-shouting earlier miiiiiiight have just vaguely reminded me of Calliope Mori. Which is amusing.

…For a Goldmary support, this is surprisingly nice and wholesome and devoid of bitchiness and chaos. …It’s kind of unnerving, actually, like being paranoid for ambush spawns that aren’t there.

…It occurs to me that with Emblem Celica, I might be able to have Ivy Warp Ragnarok in if I keep it on her for now. Fuck it, sure. I’ll give Roy to Goldmary while Leif’s “in the shop”, shall we say.

Alright, let’s try exercising again! Lilith can apparently help, and I’ve gotten more success with sit-ups than push-ups when I tried that for the hell of it on the maddening file, so let’s try sit-ups!

I did pretty well on normal last time, let’s crank it up to hard.

I still only got +2 HP, unfortunately. Which is annoying, since that’s what I got from normal, despite getting the same ranking (though I didn’t get all perfects this time, but that didn’t show in the SSS ranking.

Shop has new staves in stock! Entrap, more rescue, more recover, more antitoxins and elixirs and pure waters (still no infinite of any of those though). Hold on… since Leif is a mobile boss… would it be possible to entrap him if I can secure enough staff accuracy on Clanne? Then if I bring Clanne, Pepsiman, Seadall, Yunaka and Kagetsu… that might be enough to take Leif out from a much closer initial position. Assuming, again, that I can make Kagetsu accurate enough with staves that he can entrap Leif.

Incidentally, we got some new weapons too, and I decided to seriously upgrade Louis’s greatlance by replacing it with a silver one, and transferring the Roy engrave to that. It has a might of thirty, which should make his overrides absolutely devastating.

And before I forget, let’s give Pepsiman Canter+.

…Oof. On second thought, maybe not. That would cost a huge chunk of my remaining bond fragments for a boost I’m not even sure I need. Alright, let’s reconsider. What else is worth getting on my army…?

…Not much I can see at the moment, at least nothing I’m going to be able to afford any time soon. Well, tomorrow I’ll be taking a stab at Leif’s trial. See you then!

Alastor, signing off!

[Acacia Sgt]

1 minute ago, Alastor15243 said:

Alright, sorry about all that bullshit! Time to get back to this! But fun fact, something I learned playing my ironman Maddening file (which has so rapidly turned into sheer chaos that part of me sorely wishes I did the ironman on Maddening difficulty): if you don’t have enough units to fill up all the deployment slots on the map… the empty spaces for units to go on the map don’t show up. If you have 8 units for a 10 unit map, you can’t put your units in the 9^th or 10^th unit starting spaces, because those spaces won’t appear at all. And, funny enough… it occurs to me that I don’t think I’ve ever been in a position to check if any other game in the entire series does this.

SoV also does this, from what I recall.

Although, I think it's mostly if you obtain the Cipher DLC characters, then you get additional deployment slots and map tiles to place them.

1 minute ago, Alastor15243 said:

…How does Ragnarok Warp do 17 damage to Clanne… and 22 damage to Yunaka… when they have the same fucking res?

Maybe something skill related? Or Emblem related. Or both.

1 minute ago, Alastor15243 said:

…Looks like Griss is tired of Ragnarok-Warping around me, and has returned to the boss tile he started on.

…I half-expected the game to sneakily change his skill back to Warp Ragnarok, but no, it’s still Ragnarok Warp.

Yeah, he only does it like twice... and never again. At least on Normal.

1 minute ago, Alastor15243 said:

…But that’s a cool twist, having it turn out that only Fell Dragons say those magic words to summon from the rings.

From what I recall, when Lumera called forth Sigurd, she indeed doesn't say anything. So that's another little piece of foreshadowing.

1 minute ago, Alastor15243 said:

Pepsiman believes this way too readily though. He has absolutely no way to confirm or deny anything Griss says here. None. All the Divine Dragons are dead except him. Maybe there’s a book somewhere, but right now, in this moment, nothing Griss is saying here is confirmable, and yet he’s taking it like it’s been proven.

Maybe Alear does remember the above with Lumera and Sigurd? Or from their lost memories... they feel he's right.

1 minute ago, Alastor15243 said:

So Alfred and Ivy show up, and tell him not to take his claims so seriously, and stay calm. And then Diamant and Timerra come in, pointing out we also only have Griss’s word that the distraction was even long enough, which is a very good point that hadn’t occurred to me.

But yeah, at least the others don't follow the same trains of thought.

1 minute ago, Alastor15243 said:

…Why is he weak to wyrmslayers?

Corrupted wyrms aren’t weak to wyrmslayers, and I’m pretty sure when we fought Veyle, she wasn’t either, though I’d need to check again.

But Sigurd reminds him that Lumera gave him the power of a Divine Dragon, and confirms that regardless of intention, Emblems summoned with Fell power can’t have free will. Meaning he is using Divine power when he does it. That must’ve been the point of what Lumera told him about the intentions behind summoning being important back in Chapter 2.

That would also explain the Wyrmslayer thing.

1 minute ago, Alastor15243 said:

Ivy: Conflicted as I might be, I am made resolute by the terror I feel at losing you.

…Okay, I can’t describe why, but having seen some of her supports with Pepsiman, I love that line.

I like that it could actually help their dynamics.

Ivy is a religious rebel, choosing Divine over Fell... now, as it turns out, Alear pretty much did so too! Gives them something in common. Well, that's all I'm saying for now.

1 minute ago, Alastor15243 said:

It’s nice that Clanne and Framme get lines here in this exploration scene assuring Pepsiman that this changes nothing. But seriously, it would’ve been cool if Lythos as a nation were even remotely fleshed out and this actually threw the place into chaos.

Yeah, about that...

1 minute ago, Alastor15243 said:

…Oh shit! Nice! When it comes to Warp Ragnarok, mystical units might get a bonus to the Ragnarok, but fliers get a boost to the Warp! So giving it to Ivy is still an awesome choice! Especially since she’s amazing at single-target damage.

Flier movement combined with increased warp range... yeah, that's insane.

1 minute ago, Alastor15243 said:

…Right, was this the one where someone wanted to make Ivy smile? Well Louis seems to have succeeded.

Yep, it was.

1 minute ago, Alastor15243 said:

Shop has new staves in stock! Entrap, more rescue, more recover, more antitoxins and elixirs and pure waters (still no infinite of any of those though). Hold on… since Leif is a mobile boss… would it be possible to entrap him if I can secure enough staff accuracy on Clanne? Then if I bring Clanne, Pepsiman, Seadall, Yunaka and Kagetsu… that might be enough to take Leif out from a much closer initial position. Assuming, again, that I can make Kagetsu accurate enough with staves that he can entrap Leif.

I tell ya, accuracy with staves? Divine Pulse+ Hortensia, guaranteed.

[Alastor15243]

1 minute ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Yeah, he only does it like twice... and never again. At least on Normal.

It was like four times on hard, to my recollection.

2 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

I tell ya, accuracy with staves? Divine Pulse+ Hortensia, guaranteed.

Ah, but the staff skill also increases how much she can heal.

[Acacia Sgt]

1 minute ago, Alastor15243 said:

Ah, but the staff skill also increases how much she can heal.

Well, you can run Micaiah!Hortensia with inherited Divine Pulse+.

[Alastor15243]

17 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Well, you can run Micaiah!Hortensia with inherited Divine Pulse+.

...Shit, that's only 500 SP? That actually might be worth considering putting that on Hortensia.

[Eltosian Kadath]

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

Alright, sorry about all that bullshit! Time to get back to this! But fun fact, something I learned playing my ironman Maddening file (which has so rapidly turned into sheer chaos that part of me sorely wishes I did the ironman on Maddening difficulty): if you don’t have enough units to fill up all the deployment slots on the map… the empty spaces for units to go on the map don’t show up. If you have 8 units for a 10 unit map, you can’t put your units in the 9^th or 10^th unit starting spaces, because those spaces won’t appear at all. And, funny enough… it occurs to me that I don’t think I’ve ever been in a position to check if any other game in the entire series does this.

There are other Fire Emblem games that do this, as I know I ran into this on one of my ironmans once, but not all, and I can't exactly remember which one... hm... I might end up making a thread about finding the answer to that question,

 

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

 

Done. Now to experiment with Illume while Micaiah-engaged. True, it doesn’t let you use it on a distant space, but it might increase that 7-space illumination to 12 or something awesome like that. Or, bare minimum, activate itself on the adjacent tiles so that the range at least increases by one.

Fun fact, the area of effect bonus makes it so that the Illume staff will add the torch-like effect to the allies adjacent to the user as well.

 

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

 

…Looks like Griss is tired of Ragnarok-Warping around me, and has returned to the boss tile he started on.

 

…I half-expected the game to sneakily change his skill back to Warp Ragnarok, but no, it’s still Ragnarok Warp.

He also teleports back to the boss tile after you take down his first health bar as well, so taking him down too early isn't as much of a concern.

 

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

 

AND I JUST GOT 50 THOUSAND FUCKING GOLD FROM ELUSIA LET’S GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

The last lump sum... spend it well.