To Become an Elitist [Playlogs FE1-5] [currently playing: Thracia 776]

[Jotari]

19 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Hmmm... Actually? I have to concede the point, as I am the living proof. I did, in fact, do a sub run with Cairpre present. A really bad Cairpre too, his father was Alec lmao. He was still a lot more useful than the big scrub-tier subs like Tristan and Roddlebahn or whatever his name is this time of year.

Really, his biggest problem is just that he's worse than Sharlow and they can't exist together. Combined with Laylea being arguably as good as Lene, leaving Sylvia alone ends up seeming like a better choice, and this is very bad for poor Cairpre.

Yeah, and if my suggestion of a parent-child money transfer idea is to be in effect, then Sharlow would naturally be entitled to get that too. Especially if they use my other idea which is to make Sharlow Hannibal's actual son. What? You really think I was going to talk about another sub and not shill that thread XD

[Interdimensional Observer]

4 hours ago, ping said:

As I said, Arion as a person, growing up with a father like Travant, would have my sympathy. Arion as a fictional character is frustrating because first, he's just evil daddy's yesman, and when evil daddy finally showcases a shade of grey, it just goes over his head entirely, with the conclusion that he and his kidn-- adopted sister must stab each other eventually.

My error then, my misinterpretation.😅 Sorry for wasting your time.

I wasn’t attempting to defend Arion for his decision that dooms the lives of hundreds or thousands of Thracians. -Yet, I admit I try not to be one to harshly criticize fictional characters …though Gen 2 Lewyn is something of an exception (save for the part where loathing pixels is unpleasant, unneeded, and undesirable, so I’d rather not dislike him even if he’s dislikable).😆

Completely unserious explanation for anything stupid any flier character does.: Spending a bunch of time high in the sky where the air is thinner leads to slight oxygen deprivation, the effects of which on the brain and cognitive functions are subtle yet significant. -This explanation doesn't work at all, because there is simply no way pegasi and wyverns fly at such altitudes that oxygen masks/pressured cabins are necessary to stay alive and functionally conscious.😝

[ping]

Why didn't Altena just ask a random old guy who her real parents are? Is she stupid?

6 hours ago, Jotari said:

I think they might have meant that it's closer to Ulster. Leif's city of Leinster is up on the northern coast of North Thracia. While Ulster, the city you first fight Bloom in, is the south western part. And the whole region is called Munster District and not Leinster. So unless the map looked something like this.

Which would give way too much territory to Leinster, unless it's pushed up right to the coast. There also doesn't seem to be a way to give the titular Munster much territory, thanks to Thracia getting that east coast that is only accessible from right beside Munster.

You're right, it is a bit surprising that it's part of Leonster. I haven't really been thinking about the four realms of the Manster district, so that never occurred to me. Directly west of Meath and north of Luthecia would put it here on the map:

So we probably just have to assume that Leonster controls like half of the Manster district.

5 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Murderer.

Spoiler

4 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Roddlebahn

Make it "Rodelbahn" and you have the German word for a sled run. A beautiful name for a boy.

5 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

...in all seriousness, letting both get berserk would help, but the problem is that Coirpre really really needs paragon due to his starting situation, and he just... Doesn't get it, unlike Sharlow. Unless they completely change how they function as units, I fear the concept is kinda dead on arrival. I mean, seriously, level 1 priest halfway through chapter 8?

Lex/Sylvia, let's go.

(just theorycrafting - but that actually sounds like the most convenient option if you're going for ranked, no? Coirpre gets Paragon, Lex can pass him the Renewal band to give him a nice 20k to blow on staves, not like Lex would lack the funds, and you don't really care about how useful Coirple's staff botting is. And Lene can do Vantage/Sleep Sword memes to get through the arena, so she'll cap out, too.)

1 hour ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

My error then, my misinterpretation.😅 Sorry for wasting your time.

Hey, no worries. We're both entitled to our opinions, and it's not as if I wasn't spamming mine all over this thread.

2 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Completely unserious explanation for anything stupid any flier character does.: Spending a bunch of time high in the sky where the air is thinner leads to slight oxygen deprivation, the effects of which on the brain and cognitive functions are subtle yet significant. -This explanation doesn't work at all, because there is simply no way pegasi and wyverns fly at such altitudes that oxygen masks/pressured cabins are necessary to stay alive and functionally conscious.😝

We see wyverns fly above peaks (yet close enough to spot the sadness in their eyes), so this seems like a perfectly realistic explanation. It also covers why Erin would ever be attracted to Lewyn.

[BrightBow]

16 hours ago, ping said:

: "Feh... I see you've found out at last. Well, I suppose it was only a matter of time before this day came. It's true. Quan did indeed sire you, but what difference does that make now? It doesn't change that it is I who raised you."

I didn't even give you an exploding sword or anything.
 

16 hours ago, ping said:

Anyway - Travant is great in this scene. Might be the first time he shows a certain moral greyness, with how his adoption of Altena has been framed as just an act to use her innate power. But here, he recognises the writing on the wall: Seliph's army is going to win, and with Travant being a famously traitorous and backstabby (even though that's a bit of an informed attribute, in my opinion), not to mention the killer of Leif's parents and abductor of his sister... Travant's chances to negotiate a peace with Seliph seem slim at best. So, instead, he hands over his crown to Arion, who does not carry any of that baggage, with what I see as a pretty clear implied recommendation to make peace with Leonster, and then he goes off to get himself killed with his honour intact because warrior codes are weird like that.

Don't think warrior codes have much to do with that. Pride, maybe. But above else I would say he is just done with life at this point.

After decades he is still stuck in the Southern end of the peninsula.
Not only that, his worst fear has finally become realized. The girl he raised for 17 years has finally found out that what he did to her biological parents and now looks at him with the eyes of her mother and sees in him nothing but a murderer.
I would imagine he saw his two kids as a symbol of a united Thracia. Now they have instead cause a repeat of the tragedy of the Gae Borg and are if anything a symbol of it's ongoing divide.

Point is, his reign was a complete failure. For all his plotting and scheming he has nothing to show for but the corpses of the good people who died in his wake.
 

16 hours ago, ping said:

What an idiot. Seriously, I don't understand how Arion hears Travant say "But we don't need to be hated by their kind..." and concludes that Travant wants him to keep fighting. Seems to me like a very clear suggestion to make peace. What a pure, unadulterated Camüh - down to the cool beardman contrasting his idiocy. I just hope that he feels differently about Altena than Camüh about Nyna.

He is such a dumbass, it's impressive.

I suppose we needed someone to keep leading the Thracian forces. If killing Trabant really did end the fighting, it would feel a lot more like the big climactic showdown with one of the hero killers from Gen 1 that the devs clearly don't want it to be.

But this is just not a great way to do this.

 

[Interdimensional Observer]

1 minute ago, ping said:

We see wyverns fly above peaks (yet close enough to spot the sadness in their eyes), so this seems like a perfectly realistic explanation. It also covers why Erin would ever be attracted to Lewyn.

For a fraction of a second, I misread "Erin" as "Finn".🤣

2 minutes ago, ping said:

So we probably just have to assume that Leonster controls like half of the Manster district.

Thracia does establish that Free and ...Districtorial(?) Cities exist.

-But I haven't a clue how the political structure would function. Free Imperial Cities in the HRE meant "only has the Holy Roman Emperor as a landlord, nobody in-between", and I don't think there's any indication that Leonster's monarch occupies a similar role in the District? Maybe? It's never clearly stated if King/Queen of Leonster does, at least in matters of defense against foreign aggression. 

Thracia was modeled after Spain, while Leonster, in the north, was modeled after Italy. That’s why Leonster appears more highly-civilised and polished in comparison.

-Kaga's remarks again.

...Sooooo is the Manster District supposed to be akin to Medieval/Renaissance Italy politically then? -With way less internal conflict I would imagine.

[Revier]

2 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Spending a bunch of time high in the sky where the air is thinner leads to slight oxygen deprivation, the effects of which on the brain and cognitive functions are subtle yet significant. -This explanation doesn't work at all, because there is simply no way pegasi and wyverns fly at such altitudes that oxygen masks/pressured cabins are necessary to stay alive and functionally conscious.😝

While this is obviously not intended by either Kaga or Intelligent Systems, it would surely be a hilarious way to "explain" nonsensical actions, especially in a parody/comical scene.

16 minutes ago, ping said:

Why didn't Altena just ask a random old guy who her real parents are? Is she stupid?

LOL

Gameplay-story segregation strikes again. 😆

Although tbh why do clerics know the name of characters' parents? If they can detect these things through prayer or spiritual concentration, wouldn't that make Arvis' deal even weirder?

7 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Thracia was modeled after Spain, while Leonster, in the north, was modeled after Italy. That’s why Leonster appears more highly-civilised and polished in comparison.

Kaga calling different parts of the world more/less civilized? Oh dear.

[ping]

6 minutes ago, BrightBow said:

Don't think warrior codes have much to do with that. Pride, maybe. But above else I would say he is just done with life at this point.

After decades he is still stuck in the Southern end of the peninsula.
Not only that, his worst fear has finally become realized. The girl he raised for 17 years has finally found out that what he did to her biological parents and now looks at him with the eyes of her mother and sees in him nothing but a murderer.
I would imagine he saw his two kids as a symbol of a united Thracia. Now they have instead cause a repeat of the tragedy of the Gae Borg and are if anything a symbol of it's ongoing divide.

Point is, his reign was a complete failure. For all his plotting and scheming he has nothing to show for but the corpses of the good people who died in his wake.

Interesting perspective. I read Travant as having decided on this last resort at the start of chapter 8 already, with Arion's line about Travant looking more fearful than ever foreshadowing that. If Arion seemingly killing Altena was what pushed him over the edge, that would put quite a different spin on this.

Personally, I think I'll still keep a hypothetical code of honour in the back of my mind. Arion must've gotten his ideas about honour from from somewhere, so I kinda expect Thracia to have one.

10 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

...Sooooo is the Manster District supposed to be akin to Medieval/Renaissance Italy politically then? -With way less internal conflict I would imagine.

One would expect a lot of Grannvalian meddling in the diplomatic affairs between the Manster realms, no? With Thracia playing more of a role of plundering brigands with less diplomatic finesse, I can buy that they wouldn't have much success in that game, but surely, some Grannvale kings would've tried to play the Manster factions against one another.

SEQUEL IDEA: Thracia 1492, in which the seafarer Chris O'Lumbus from the Manster district conducts an naval exploration in the name of the Thracian king and queen. And lo and behold, he actually discovers what will later be known as Valentia! Unfortunately, he turns out to be a complete piece of shit, killing and enslaving the natives, and it's the mission of the player character to expose his evil deeds.

12 minutes ago, Revier said:

LOL

Gameplay-story segregation strikes again. 😆

Although tbh why do clerics know the name of characters' parents? If they can detect these things through prayer or spiritual concentration, wouldn't that make Arvis' deal even weirder?

An oddity that I'm willing to accept because it is convenient. And a character's parentage isn't important enough in the turn-by-turn business that it would have to be crammed into the stat screen somewhere.

(A small detail that is missing and that I would've liked: Characters like Ares and Johalvier could've given an answer from the augury, too. If nothing else, it would allow Jotari to add Finn's parents to his list of named FE characters that never actually make an on-screen appearance)

[Jotari]

1 hour ago, ping said:

You're right, it is a bit surprising that it's part of Leonster. I haven't really been thinking about the four realms of the Manster district, so that never occurred to me. Directly west of Meath and north of Luthecia would put it here on the map:

So we probably just have to assume that Leonster controls like half of the Manster district.

 

Yeah, while it's really cool that you can put the Genealogy maps together and they make the recognizeable shape of the Jugdral continent....much less care was taken to ensure any of the castle positions reflect where they actually are in the gameplay maps. Because the spot you marked on that map corresponds to here in Chapter 7

Which...yeah, those clumps of villages are definitely not. Hell Melgen and Ulster are practically on the same line of latitude yet on the intro chapter map Ulster is quite a bit to the north. I wonder if Kaga came up with his world map first and then tried to design the chapters around that map and had to make compromises for the sake of gameplay, or if it was all gameplay first and someone just really half assed their job of designing the intro map.

43 minutes ago, ping said:

SEQUEL IDEA: Thracia 1492, in which the seafarer Chris O'Lumbus from the Manster district conducts an naval exploration in the name of the Thracian king and queen. And lo and behold, he actually discovers what will later be known as Valentia! Unfortunately, he turns out to be a complete piece of shit, killing and enslaving the natives, and it's the mission of the player character to expose his evil deeds.

Funny enough, that would place you directly in the middle of a 200 year period where Valentia was dealing with a mysterious pirate nation that resulted in the dual monarchies getting the blond bond with Mila and Duma. Though I think the official Valentian timeline says the pirate nation was related to the predecessors of the Macedonians.

43 minutes ago, ping said:

(A small detail that is missing and that I would've liked: Characters like Ares and Johalvier could've given an answer from the augury, too. If nothing else, it would allow Jotari to add Finn's parents to his list of named FE characters that never actually make an on-screen appearance)

I would absolutely love if they went to the bother of naming the parents of everyone in the first gen purely for the Augary. So many Holy Blood Nobles with only theoretically existing wives. Oh god, Hannibal must have had parents. TELL ME WHO THEY ARE MAGIC MAN!

Edited April 16 by Jotari

[Revier]

8 minutes ago, Jotari said:

Yeah, while it's really cool that you can put the Genealogy maps together and they make the recognizeable shape of the Jugdral continent....much less care was taken to ensure any of the castle positions reflect where they actually are in the gameplay maps. Because the spot you marked on that map corresponds to here in Chapter 7

...

Which...yeah, those clumps of villages are definitely now. Hell Melgen and Ulster are practically on the same line of latitude yet on the intro chapter map Ulster is quite a bit to the north. I wonder if Kaga came up with his world map first and then tried to design the chapters around that map and had to make compromises for the sake of gameplay, or if it was all gameplay first and someone just really half assed their job of designing the intro map.

I think it's much more likely that they just didn't think up the placement/dialogue of most villages too thoroughly, after all many of them are basically just cash handouts with small bits of lore. And this isn't the first time their lore has contradicted the broader situation/narrative either.

Edited April 16 by Revier

[Jotari]

15 minutes ago, Revier said:

I think it's much more likely that they just didn't think up the placement/dialogue of most villages too thoroughly, after all many of them are basically just cash handouts with small bits of lore. And this isn't the first time their lore has contradicted the broader situation/narrative either.

Well, none of the villages in any of the chapters are marked on the intro map, only the castles are (at least in Genealogy, we get some more names in 776). And they are the ones that don't have accurate placement in relation to coastlines, or even each other.

Edited April 16 by Jotari

[Saint Rubenio]

1 hour ago, ping said:

 

7 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

 

  Reveal hidden contents

5 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

 

 

Ah, but I did have a reason to do that: it greatly amused me.

1 hour ago, ping said:

Make it "Rodelbahn" and you have the German word for a sled run. A beautiful name for a boy.

Pretty sure Project Naga tried to go for this but corrupted.

1 hour ago, ping said:

Lex/Sylvia, let's go.

(just theorycrafting - but that actually sounds like the most convenient option if you're going for ranked, no? Coirpre gets Paragon, Lex can pass him the Renewal band to give him a nice 20k to blow on staves, not like Lex would lack the funds, and you don't really care about how useful Coirple's staff botting is. And Lene can do Vantage/Sleep Sword memes to get through the arena, so she'll cap out, too.)

I suppose that is one niche. Of course, in regular play Corple has to choose between Paragon and any stats that are actually useful to him, whereas Sharlow just shows up with everything he needs. Because subs are cool.

1 hour ago, BrightBow said:

didn't even give you an exploding sword or anything.

Plot twist: that was the kicker. If Travant had given Altena a sword that blows up she would've loved him way more.

1 hour ago, Revier said:

Kaga calling different parts of the world more/less civilized? Oh dear.

Spaniard here. I can confirm this entire country (all of it) is a desolate arid wasteland. Also, I am Travant.

Edited April 16 by Saint Rubenio

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

3 hours ago, ping said:

Why didn't Altena just ask a random old guy who her real parents are? Is she stupid?

Obviously, Gary OldMan is an integral part of our army. Altenna couldn't meet him, and discover his wisdom, until she defected.

3 hours ago, ping said:

Lex/Sylvia, let's go.

(just theorycrafting - but that actually sounds like the most convenient option if you're going for ranked, no? Coirpre gets Paragon, Lex can pass him the Renewal band to give him a nice 20k to blow on staves, not like Lex would lack the funds, and you don't really care about how useful Coirple's staff botting is. And Lene can do Vantage/Sleep Sword memes to get through the arena, so she'll cap out, too.)

I gave 'em an A. Not only does Coirpre become a mini-Charlot, but Leen gets 20 EXP per Dance. The defense boost usually helps, though it can occasionally make Miracle strats trickier. Not sure if it's as good as Claud passing down his own Staves (and major Bragi blood for stupid Mag and Res), though.

2 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Plot twist: that was the kicker. If Travant had given Altena a sword that blows up she would've loved him way more.

I mean, he did give her a cursed lance, so... father of the year?

3 hours ago, BrightBow said:

He is such a dumbass, it's impressive.

I suppose we needed someone to keep leading the Thracian forces. If killing Trabant really did end the fighting, it would feel a lot more like the big climactic showdown with one of the hero killers from Gen 1 that the devs clearly don't want it to be.

But this is just not a great way to do this.

Once answer could've been: Travant remains the main boss, and doesn't make his "suicide charge". After Seliph seizes the second-to-last castle, Travant orders Arion to retreat. The future of Thracia lay in his hands, and cannot afgord to die today. Arion, reluctantly, obliges his father's last command.

Travant wields the Gungnir, but is still slain in battle. After the battle, Altenna takes Gungnir with her. When she reunites with Arion in the final chapter, she gives the lance back, and offers him a choice - to join her, or else to duel to the death. He chooses the former.

2 hours ago, Jotari said:

would absolutely love if they went to the bother of naming the parents of everyone in the first gen purely for the Augary. So many Holy Blood Nobles with only theoretically existing wives. Oh god, Hannibal must have had parents. TELL ME WHO THEY ARE MAGIC MAN!

Hannibals actually reproduce by budding. The current one spawned out of the beard of the previous Hannibal.

[ping]

FE4 Chapter 9: For Whose Sake

Luthecia --> Grutia --> Thracia

Spoiler

The next turn starts with Faval, who I had intended to grab money from the villages, retreating back south, because I peeked ahead a little...

...because another John Constipatius (surely related to Incontinentia Buttocks) spawns from that area.

: "Heh, no matter. The rebels' little rampage ends here. Ready, men? We're going in. The Emperor himself's put a handsome bounty on each rebel head. We mustn't waste a chance to claim it for ourselves!

And at the same time, Grutia starts... Well, I'd love to say "moving", but you'll see...

: "The enemy has got their grubby paws on Kapathogia?! I should've known better than to trust those worthless Thracians... I suppose it was unavoidable. Fortify our defensive line. Until reinforcements arrive, we must defend the castle at all costs."

__

It's a whole group of ballistae... and nothing else. This is so dumb.

What's also dumb is Dermott getting hit by a 1%. The Thracia experience, I guess

: "A liberation army, is it... There is no place for your precious light in this realm. This world is Lord Loptyr's to smother in darkness!"

To make up for it, Oifey manages to avoid a 58, so yay him.

Judah is about what you expect a Dark Bishop to be, which is to say fairly bulky for a mage, pretty accurate (Jormungand has +20 hit compared to Fenrir) and hard-hitting, but slowed down a lot even with his 1-2 ranged option, so his Pursuit skill doesn't matter a whole lot.

I forgot to make a screenshot of the stats, but the commander of the Ballista squad uses a Killer Ballista. Its Mt is right between normal and Iron Ballistae, but it's really accurate (100 hit compared to the others' 60) and gives the Critical skill. Luckily, enemy Ballisticians have all-around awful stats, so the crit chance is relatively low.

In the north, John Constipatius CIXX. is even tankier than Judah, even before taking his Shield Ring into account. He's also really fast, since Tornado, like all the non-Forseti wind spells, only has a weight of 2. This is important, since he also has the Pursuit skill, and 18 AS actually doubles a lot of units on our team.

__

His team is a bunch of promoted Cav classes - three of each weapon type, all carrying Silvers, plus two unarmed healers in the Paladin class.

Before getting to the fight, recruiting Hannibal unlocks a conversation between Sharlow and Leylia - and thanks to the Knight Ring, she can dance and talk on the same turn. Convenient!

: "Hey! You're Sharlow, right?"
: "Huh? Sorry, but who are you, miss?"
: "I'm Leylia! Er, you've never seen a dancer before, have you?"
: "No, sorry... Not yet."
: "Heh! Y'know, if you ever have time to spare, I can show you a bit of dancing. Deal?"
: "T-thank you..."

[+1 Lck --> Leylia]

Certainly a conversation of all time. With words and all. Looking at the chapter's script on the wiki, Lene and Coirpre discover that they're both from Dahra, but even that is absent from Leylia and Sharlow's dialogue. Supporting Jotari's suggestion that Sharlow could just have been Hannibal's biologial son, it seems like their being siblings won't amount to anything in the story.

Let's get Judah and the Ballistae out of the way first. I had hoped that Oifey would draw another Fenrir attack to allow Dermott to just march in and one-round Judah...

...but because Nanna stayed a bit too far back to heal her brother up, Arthur does the job instead with an Adept proc.

: "Heh... Lord Loptyr's return is nigh... And when it comes... You will all..."

Dermott can just kill the dangerous Ballistician instead.

Fee also approaches from the north a bit ahead of time - not really necessary in hindsight, since I'm going to wait for my units to group up a little anyway, but as you'll see, Musah's group also won't be too much of a problem.

The rest of the Ballisticians will go down in the next couple rounds. Nothing interesting there, so I'll consider this part of the fight done.

____

For starters, a little bit of kiting and (frankly not really necessary) money stealing, including Ares eating a 6%. My GBAFE-conditioned brain is losing its mind right now.

____

More kiting, although at this point it's mostly about staying just out of Musar's range...

...and it's clean-up time. At this point, the non-mounted units start approaching from the east, too, and it's not that big a problem to finish off the remaining enemies.

As for the boss...

: "Death to all rebel scum! Only oblivion awaits those who dare to threaten the Empire!"

...swapping from Silver to Slim actually gets Seliph from being doubled to double Musah, although he doesn't exactly hit him very hard like this.

Leaf ended up significantly faster than Seliph, and he can double even with his trusted Silver Blade and gets the kill with a hit, a miss, and an Adept proc.

: "Glory be... to Grannvale!"

This also puts the Tornado spell into Leaf's inventory which... honestly seems not too bad. It's nice to have a very light 1-2 option, and Tornado makes up for his not-too-impressive Mag stat. He can pass his Flame Sword to Seliph, Ares or Oifey at the start of the next chapter.

__

Patty spots her brother some dough for a Paragon arena run, and Altena flies up to grab the villages instead. She isn't the greatest recipient for the Res ring that you get from one of them, since her Res will still be arse after the +5 bonus, but I'm sure Seliph can afford it without much issue. He's at 50k gold at the start of the next chapter.

: "General Distler of Luthecia's nothing more than a slimy toady to the king! Useless as he is, he still acts all like he's some almighty tyrant... What a foul little man."

: "They say a priest from a dark cult has got his foul hands on Grutia. Could it be true? Make no mistake. I know well the life King Travant is trying to crawl free of... But to allow a fell agent of the Loptyrian Order free run of his country... How could he make such a foolish choice? Accept this here barrier ring... And with it, please, save our beloved nation!"

: "Oh, hey! You've gone and sorted out them Imperial reinforcements already? Wow... I'm pretty dang impressed!"

That's a very small thing to (presumably) include alternative dialogue for.

: "Thracia has many generals in its service, but Lord Hannibal is the most revered of 'em all. The man has devoted nigh on his entire life to the battlefield, so he never found a wife. Mind, twelve years ago or so, he did take in an orphan. He treats the boy as if he's his own flesh and blood. What a wonderful guy!"

: "King Travant's as heartless as men come, he is. But oddly enough, his two kids, Arion and Altena, are the kindest souls you'll ever meet. Like peas in a pod, those two are! Always have been. Oh, I pray nothing ever changes that..."

Well, about that...

[22500 gold; Barrier Ring --> Altena]

Now, to more important things: Some more money for Johalvier from Larcei...

...and Johalvier can make use of the Killer Bow's low weight now. We'll see if I can get away with not giving this to Arthur for full Forseti onslaught against the bosses in the last chapters.

Moving, moving, moving...

...and Seliph eventually arrives at Grutia and seizes.

: "Lewyn, do you think Arion still intends to fight us?"
: "Looks like it. I've sent envoy after envoy offering a truce, but he's not responding."

Fun Fact: An important mechanic in the multiplayer of the strategy game Europa Universalis IV is "stab-hitting": If you have at least +50% warscore against a human opponent and you sent them a peace offer that has at most half of that value, their country will suffer a loss of stability if they refuse the offer. You can spend a resource to increase stability again, but it's too expensive to keep up indefinitely, and an opponent at minimum stability will be forced to accept the next incoming peace offer. So, part of warfare is to send diplomats to an opponent you want to peace out (in particular a secondary participant of a war) as frequently as possible, with once per ingame month being the optimum. I'm imagining Lewyn sitting at a PC hovering his mouse cursor over the "offer peace" button to click it the second it lights up.

: "I guess his stubborn dracoknight pride compels him to fight to the bitter end. And here I was hoping the legendary Arion of Thracia'd be a wiser man than this... Seliph, I hope you understand we can't turn back now. This last battle needs to be fought."
: "I don't understand him... Why? Why must Arion insist on fighting such a futile battle... Arion... How can he be so callous? Does he not understand the grief he is inflicting on Altena?!"

"Also sending swarms of soldiers to their death, but Altena was looking really sad!"

Otherwise - glad we're on the same page here, Seliph.

Seizing Grutia unlocks a few more conversations, starting with Sharlow and Hannibal, although that one is more of an easter egg without a Talk command (or appearing in the unit list). There was no reason why the two should split up, so this one I can get on the same turn Seliph seized:

: "Sharlow..."
: "Hm? Is something wrong, Papa?"
: "Son... I feel as if I am in some way responsible for all of your misfortunes... If you'd been raised by a normal family, rather than by a soldier such as myself, you would never have been abducted..."
: "Don't say things like that, Papa! I'm as happy as can be to live with you! And thanks to you, I'm using my magic to help you all fight for peace and justice. I wouldn't give that up for anything!"
: "I see..."
: "Oh, and by the way."
: "...Yes?"
: "I'm so proud that you're my papa, Papa... Kapathogia's people love you so much. They all say you're the best thing that ever happened to them. Not to mention, you adopted an orphan!"
: "They do, do they... Thank you, Sharlow. I'm so glad I have such a fine son... Which reminds me. This staff is for you. I found it discarded in the castle grounds. I believe you're skilled enough to wield it."
: "Ohh! And it's a lovely staff, too! Thank you, Papa! Thank you so much."

[Berserk --> Sharlow]

Very sweet convo. No wisecracks to be made here.

: "The enemy has come as far as Grutia... Very well. All hands, deploy at once! Engage them in the Dragon Trinity Strike formation! This is our final chance. Thracia's destiny hangs in the balance of this final assault!"

I could make a joke about the Trinity Strike involving four platoons... but Arion, with his larger and more powerful group, stays behind at Thracia Castle.

Arion is, obviously, quite threatening with Gungnir combined with his high mobility.. Despite his slightly lower level, his base stats are higher than his father's, too, and he replaces Vantage with Adept to make sure that you'd never want to fight him at melee range. Of course, he still has Nihil to fend up bows and Pursuit to completely destroy any character without adequate speed. And of course, there is the Miracle Band to potentially give you a headache if you trigger that skill.

____

His platoon consists of the stronger Dracoknights (with Slim Lances and Sleep Edges) instead of the Dragonrider mooks that will assault our castles - although those squads are at least led by a Brave Lance Dracoknight each.

 

So, what's the plan?

 

__

Why, it's to rely on our primo combat units Patty and Johalvier, of course!

__

Patty is a bit better at the job, because the Dragonriders all insist on attacking from range (I assume at this point that the 2-range magic of her sword confounds the AI) and get one-rounded and stolen from. Johalvier is just shy of one-rounding now that he can double (although he gets two Accost procs), but like Patty, he has no trouble staying alive.

The third group can mostly be intercepted on their path west, so Luthecia doesn't really come under assault.

However, the commander got away - right there next to Thracia Castle - and it's, once again, going to fetch another group of enemies from the enemy castle. But, as you can see, the last battle of this map is about to start:

: "They've come at last... Move out! Whether we win or die, we'll have fought in our fatherland's name! Dracoknights! Descend upon the enemy!"

...oh.

Yeahh, let's not let that happen. This swarm of Wyverns needs some kiting, and a sleeping Arthur (without Forseti equipped) is not going to survive if he's left behind against Arion.

There, better.

Here, the AI actually did a smart, and is using the cliff to make hit-and-run tactics less effective. With how the cliff is formed, I wonder if this is deliberate map design - if so, nicely done.

__

So, more kiting, avoiding Arion's range...

...and the first and last wave of reinforcements comes out, although not quite synced up with Arion's group. Despite how this looks, the reinforcements already took their turn on this screenshot, while Arion's group is about to assault.

So, let's see what Arion has to offer.

: "Heh... What fools. You dare challenge me, even knowing I wield Gungnir, the heavenly lance?"

__

...yeah, I know, running right into Miracle range. I was just thinking "let's see if Arthur procs something" - he did - and didn't even consider that Forseti might have this low a hitrate.

It gives an opportunity to check out Arion's battle convo with Seliph:

: "So... You're the famous Prince Seliph... Heh, I trust you'll make for a fine foe. Shall we begi our duel, then?"
: "Prince Arion, please! Lay down your arms! It isn't too late to end this peacefully!"
: "Enough! I've nothing left to say. Now, come! Come acquaint yourself with Gungnir, Seliph!"

No Adept proc from Arion, so no entry in Seliph's "L" list, but he obviously doesn't connect with his 0% hit attempts, either.

: "How... How could this be?! I've... I've brought shame on myself... Altena..."

Instead, Julia hits one of two coinflips. With how Micaiah-like her appearance is, you wouldn't expect her to double Arion, but her Spd is actually tied with Fee's for second-best (after Larcei) on the team.

And then, Arion gets saved by Julius.

I'll be honest, I had to laugh a little at this. I know, there's the precedent of Julius saving Ishtar earlier, but since he and Arion didn't really have any connection at all, this is still an extremely contrived way of letting Arion return in endgame. Manfroy could've swooped in, all "Mwahahahahhh, I shall brainwash youuuuuu!", and it couldn't have been sillier.

...I believe that is what they call foreshadowing.

I won't bore you with the details for the rest of the fight. Easy clean-up, a few remaining arena runs (everybody except Leylia and Sharlow).

__

Although this is, er, nice: Patty realises that Ulster's raw stats are even sexier than Shanan's. She can immediately use Ulster's 50k to enable full Paragon arena runs for Altena (who was still slightly below 40k despite getting all but one village), Ced, and Arthur.

I didn't forget about the remaining conversations, either:

: "Are you at all hurt, Lord Seliph?"
: "Ah, Julia! No, I'm fine, thank you. I pray you're taking care of yourself."
: "Lord Seliph..."
: "Is something amiss?"
: "Er... No, it's nothing..."
: "Listen, Julia. You've been acting oddly all day. Is something troubling you?"
: "I... All I can feel is dread... I feel as if I'll be torn from you, and we'll never see each other again... I... I'm terrified..."
: "You've no need to worry, Julia. I swore to you all those months ago that I'll protect you, no matter what. Have faith, Julia. I'll never let you down."
: "I know... I do believe in you... I'm so sorry, Lord Seliph... I've never been more than a nuisance to you."
: "You must be weary. We have been on the march for weeks on end, after all! Listen. Once we're done here, we'll be headed for the free city of Miletos. You can have a nice, long rest there. Oh, that's right! Miletos is famous for its merchants, no? I can take you shopping while we're there. I'll buy you anything you desire. Well, as long as it's not too pricey. Heh... I can only imagine how poorly Lewyn would handle any over-spending!"
: "You would do that...? Oh, thank you, Lord Seliph... Thank you..."
: "Is that a little smile I see before me? Heh, now that's more like it!"
: "Lord Seliph... Close your eyes, please."
: "Hm? Why do you ask?"
: "I wish to cast a Ward spell upon you... It will help you better resist enemy magic."
: "Are you sure, Julia?! Wouldn't the use of such a spell endanger you?"
: "Everything will be alright... I've done naught but take and take so far. All I want is to give something back."
: "Julia..."
: "Oh, lords in the heavens above... I implore you, confer your blessings upon Lord Seliph..."

[+3 Res --> Seliph]

Look, Kaga, I know they still don't know about it, but would you mind not shipping the siblings this hard? Ignoring that... One, has there any rule of magic been established why this spell is dangerous for Julia to cast? And two, I can not believe that fuckin' Lewyn seems to be in charge of the treasury.

Lastly, Altena can have one of two conversations, although the magic of mid-battle saves allows to see both:

: "Princess Altena. I've been filled in on your situation. You have my deepest condolences."
: "General Hannibal... You've chosen to ally with Lord Seliph as well, have you? Thank goodness... I was dreading the very idea of considering you an enemy as well."
: "Hm. Pray tell, milady, what has become of Prince Arion?"
: "My broth- Er, no... Arion simply refused to listen to anything I said. Perhaps you would have better luck persuading him, sir?"
: "If you couldn't convince him, milady, then nobody has a chance. I would surmise that Prince Arion is resolved to die a warrior's death, not giving in to the indignity of a truce. We've no choice left."
: "But sir-"
: "I know how you feel, milady... But some men like Arion are stubborner than mules. Most likely, Prince Arion would never wish to reveal such perceived weakness before you. Please understand this at least, milady..."

[+3 HP -> Altena]

Just in general, it's a nice touch that Altena tries to dissociate herself from the Thracian royal family, but can't quite prevent herself from still seeing them as brother and father.

Both Hannibal and Finn's conversations with Altena give her +3 HP, so that's why you can only have one of them. Since they go in very different directions, this seems a bit silly - why not attach the HP bonus to only one of them and have the other increase all of Hannibal's stats by +5 instead?

Anyway, one reload later...:

: "Pardon me, my lady... I am Finn, a knight of House Leonster. It is an honor to meet you once more."
: "So you're Sir Finn, then? Leif's told me about you already. I can't thank you enough for all you've done to protect him all these years."
: "Thank you, my lady, but it is I who owes you an apology. Not once in the past seventeen years did I ever suspect that you yet lived on, let alone just across the border! My failure to search for you is... is inexcusable..."
: "Sir Finn... Are those tears I see? Why... Why are you crying?"
: "I... My apologies, my lady. You shouldn't have to see me in such a state as this..."
: "Hold a moment... I remember something... Yes, I... I was incredibly fond of you... And I always sought your attention, didn't I? That's right... Sir Finn..."
: "My lady, I..."

Before she gets kagaed, Julia leaves the Silence staff at the Pawnbroker. I kept both Skill Ring and Miracle Band on her - probably a mistake, thinking about it, so I might replay the last turn to change that.

 

But for now, we're done.

: "Say, Lewyn... Did my eyes deceive me, or did Arion really vanish like that?"
: "Yeah, he did. Witnesses to the fight are saying Prince Julius appeared and took Arion."
: "The Emperor's son himself?"
: "Mm... and your half-brother, at that..."
: "I can hardly believe we share a mother..."
: "And yet you do. Empress Deirdre was a talented priestess, and it looks like he inherited her skill with white magic. For Prince Julius, common warping and healing spells are the merest of trifles. He doesn't even need staves! But that's not the whole story, Seliph. Prince Julius's true power comes from something else entirely..."
: "How do you mean?"
: "Loptyr... It's the power of the dark lord..."

...still no elaboration?

The way Julius's deal is presented through Lewyn is honestly really bad. Lewyn clearly knows what is going on, but he only makes two vague comments and now this less vague one - but he still refuses to explain what exactly he means, presumably for the sake of drama. It's like this annoying shape of a conversation: "I just can't believe [X]!" - "Why, what happened with [X]?" - "Ugh, I don't want to talk about it."

And with that being the end of the chapter, I don't think I don't have anything new to say about the plot. Arion's still an idiot, Travant is pretty cool but could've been cooler... We've gone over that.

As far as gameplay is concerned, the map had some neat ideas. The two Wyvern squads, led by Altena and Travant respectively, going after Meath were a decent way to have the player divert some resources. The Dragon Trinity Strike is pretty cool, although it's easily foiled by Return and Warp because the squads are really weak. At the start of this update, we *could* have had a cool pincer between Grutia's troops and Grannvale's reinforcements... but then we didn't because Judah decided to go for the all-stationary approach. Lost opportunity. Overall, a 5/10 map - an effort was made, and some of it was successful.

The Team:

	  Lv.	  HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res  Funds  XP    Arn  W/L
Seliph	  25.78	  63  25   5  22  20  28  22  16  50000  +458  [*]  40/0
Leif	  24.79	  57  27   8  24  26  15  25  11  16072  +622  [*]  24/0
Oifey	  25.34	  50  20  10  22  21  12  20   8  32340  +363  [*]  21/2
Finn	  29.09	  50  24   1  18  22  23  21   4  50000  +189  [*]  17/0

Dermott	  25.44	  58  23   0  30  23  20  19   6  33732  +576  [*]  40/1
Nanna	  27.90	  55  24   7  21  19  21  23   7  28800  +895  [*]  7/0
Ares	  25.06	  66  24   9  21  20  15  23  13  50000  +577  [*]  13/0 
Fee	  27.24	  54  17  17  23  28  15  20  24  42217  +473  [*]  33/0

Altena	  21.76	  57  27   3  20  22  10  25   1  43960  +476  [*]  2/0
Lester	  21.96	  49  21   3  17  19  21  17   4  40063  +648  [*]  23/0
Arthur	  25.90	  62   6  23  22  22  25  11  11  47400  +596  [*]  24/0
Shanan	  23.50	  55  23   0  30  25  11  19   6  42900  +418  [*]  14/0

Ulster	  21.40	  56  27   6  25  21  11  22   4  3000   +436  [*]  6/0
Larcei	  24.60	  63  27   1  30  30  19  22   6  16070  +384  [*]  16/0
Patty	  24.90	  55  21  12  17  26  23  13   9  6993   +688  [*]  25/0
Johalvier 27.40   57  26   0  17  20   7  23   8  16435  +634  [*]  28/0

Hannibal  21.96	  60  21   0  16  12   7  23   6  17520  +196  [*]  1/0
Faval	  21.51	  56  16  13  20  27  25  13   5  43903  +733  [*]  13/0
Ced	  23.53	  48   4  24  22  27  25  11  27  21500  +518  [*]  4/0
Lana	  29.73	  57  12  23  24  23  29  12  11  30826  +834  [*]  0/0

Tinni	  18.59	  51   1  17  21  21  20   3  10  37853  +642  [*]  6/0
Sharlow	  11.00	  34   1  15   9  11   8   5  10  3000   +1000 --   0/0
Leylia	  10.76	  29   8   2   1  14   6   2   5  13000  +310  [1]  0/0

Julia	  25.93	  46   4  30  18  28  10   5  27         +406  [*]

• Mawwied: Ulster/Patty, Larcei/Johalvier, Nanna/Leif, Patty/Ulster
• Truly in Love: Seliph<->Lana, Arthur<->Fee, Tinni->Seliph, Leylia<->Ares
• Fancy of Late: Shanan->Tinni, Dermott->Lana, Oifey->Lana, Lester->Tinni
• Dwelling on Mind: Ced->Tinni, Faval->Tinni, Sharlow->Lana
• Forever Alone: Altena, Finn, Hannibal

Ced, Faval, Shanan, and Lester love Tinni, but Tinni loves Seliph, but Seliph loves Lana and Lana loves Seliph. I think Hugh Grant played in this movie?

 

6 hours ago, Jotari said:

Which...yeah, those clumps of villages are definitely not. Hell Melgen and Ulster are practically on the same line of latitude yet on the intro chapter map Ulster is quite a bit to the north. I wonder if Kaga came up with his world map first and then tried to design the chapters around that map and had to make compromises for the sake of gameplay, or if it was all gameplay first and someone just really half assed their job of designing the intro map.

Welp, RIP perfect consistency. It's not the biggest deal, but I can't help but be a little disappointed that the ambitious goal to accurately display the world map in the slightly overlapping chapter maps has only almost been reached.

6 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Ah, but I did have a reason to do that: it greatly amused me.

So you consider your enjoyment of the game more important than a miniscule mechanical advantage?

Fake FE player.

6 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Pretty sure Project Naga tried to go for this but corrupted.

This greatly amuses me. I love these little localisation jokes, as long as they're not as heavy handed as they are in America.

6 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Also, I am Travant.

The greatest twist about that is that you secretly haven't been a beardman all along.

3 hours ago, Shanty Pete&#x27;s 1st Mate said:

Obviously, Gary OldMan is an integral part of our army. Altenna couldn't meet him, and discover his wisdom, until she defected.

OldMan he may be, but good on him for looking no day older than he did almost 20 years ago.

3 hours ago, Shanty Pete&#x27;s 1st Mate said:

I gave 'em an A. Not only does Coirpre become a mini-Charlot, but Leen gets 20 EXP per Dance. The defense boost usually helps, though it can occasionally make Miracle strats trickier. Not sure if it's as good as Claud passing down his own Staves (and major Bragi blood for stupid Mag and Res), though.

I'm basing this on very little actual knowledge of the endgame, of course, but I'm not sure how valuable that additional staff user really is in the endgame. Even without Julia, you still have Lana, Fee, Leaf, Nanna, Tinni (in any ranked run, I'm sure she'll promote with ch.10's arena), and then Coirpre/Sharlow. How important is it really to have six instead of five? Even though not everybody can use all the important staves, I'm not convinced that it's that big a deal.

 

[Saint Rubenio]

1 minute ago, ping said:

...because another John Constipatius (surely related to Incontinentia Buttocks) spawns from that area.

He's her father-in-law.

19 minutes ago, ping said:

In the north, John Constipatius CIXX. is even tankier than Judah, even before taking his Shield Ring into account. He's also really fast, since Tornado, like all the non-Forseti wind spells, only has a weight of 2. This is important, since he also has the Pursuit skill, and 18 AS actually doubles a lot of units on our team.

The Constipated clan gets stronger and stronger with each appearance. What's next, John Constipatius with holy blood?

...Actually, the joke doesn't work, because it's not next one that has holy blood. It's this one. Yeah, I think you missed it, but this rando with the funny shitass face has holy blood. Hot damn.

21 minutes ago, ping said:

: "Hey! You're Sharlow, right?"
: "Huh? Sorry, but who are you, miss?"
: "I'm Leylia! Er, you've never seen a dancer before, have you?"
: "No, sorry... Not yet."
: "Heh! Y'know, if you ever have time to spare, I can show you a bit of dancing. Deal?"
: "T-thank you..."

[+1 Lck --> Leylia]

Certainly a conversation of all time. With words and all. Looking at the chapter's script on the wiki, Lene and Coirpre discover that they're both from Dahra, but even that is absent from Leylia and Sharlow's dialogue. Supporting Jotari's suggestion that Sharlow could just have been Hannibal's biologial son, it seems like their being siblings won't amount to anything in the story.

Eh, I'm still partial to Hannibal and his adoptive son mirroring Travant and his own Garon'd child. This'd be lost if Sharlow was his biological son. These two don't need to be related at all, though.

...And this convo would've been garbage either way. Ironically, we were talking about her looking more mature being an upside, but then we get to this convo and she's being sultry with what looks to be an 8 year old. Genealogy!

23 minutes ago, ping said:

 

Very sweet convo. No wisecracks to be made here.

I have one wisecrack: Why does Cairpre not get this?!

Being Cairpre is suffering.

24 minutes ago, ping said:

And then, Arion gets saved by Julius.

I'll be honest, I had to laugh a little at this. I know, there's the precedent of Julius saving Ishtar earlier, but since he and Arion didn't really have any connection at all, this is still an extremely contrived way of letting Arion return in endgame. Manfroy could've swooped in, all "Mwahahahahhh, I shall brainwash youuuuuu!", and it couldn't have been sillier.

...I believe that is what they call foreshadowing.

I won't lie, I forgot this is how Arion survived.

...It... does not make much sense, does it.

26 minutes ago, ping said:

why not attach the HP bonus to only one of them and have the other increase all of Hannibal's stats by +5 instead?

If only.

27 minutes ago, ping said:

As far as gameplay is concerned, the map had some neat ideas. The two Wyvern squads, led by Altena and Travant respectively, going after Meath were a decent way to have the player divert some resources. The Dragon Trinity Strike is pretty cool, although it's easily foiled by Return and Warp because the squads are really weak. At the start of this update, we *could* have had a cool pincer between Grutia's troops and Grannvale's reinforcements... but then we didn't because Judah decided to go for the all-stationary approach. Lost opportunity. Overall, a 5/10 map - an effort was made, and some of it was successful.

Welp, that's been my favorite map of gen 2. Probably. We'll see how much mileage you get out of the last two chapters.

28 minutes ago, ping said:

So you consider your enjoyment of the game more important than a miniscule mechanical advantage?

Fake FE player.

Cry me a river. And I'll have you know, Im consider my enjoyment of the game less important than preserving my run's "purity."

Seriously, I should've just used the DLC in my Maddening run of Engage. But my stubborn ass just couldn't stop thinking "I need to beat it properly once so I prove I can do it." Well, I didn't. I'm the one crying a river now.

28 minutes ago, ping said:

The greatest twist about that is that you secretly haven't been a beardman all along.

Travant has a secret beard.

[BrightBow]

40 minutes ago, ping said:

In the north, John Constipatius CIXX. is even tankier than Judah, even before taking his Shield Ring into account. He's also really fast, since Tornado, like all the non-Forseti wind spells, only has a weight of 2. This is important, since he also has the Pursuit skill, and 18 AS actually doubles a lot of units on our team.

In order to be able to use Tornado, he also has Holsety blood. Or Holced blood, in order to be consistent with the official translation of Sety.

Not sure how that fits into the lore.

[Jotari]

What I like about Musar is that he actually has holy blood. Minor Forseti. This is almost certainly so he has the weapon rank to wield his Tornado tome, but it's fun to think of the story implications. Is he from Silesse? Is he a bastard brother of Lewyn? We know for sure he's not Lewyn's cousin, at least of the same generation, as neither of Lewyn's uncles have holy blood. Unless there was an unmentioned sister or something that got shipped off to be married in Grannvale. We later see some falcon knights with minor Forseti blood too, for less clear reasons, probably to give them more speed or something.

EDIT: I see two other people have already commented on Musar's blood purity before me. But I'll have you know I actually had my full comment about him written out before either of you guys posted. I just had to cycle to the train station immediately before I could finish writing about Arion.

Arion can certainly be a pain to deal with. One solution is to actually just not fight him and seize his castle from beneath him. And if I were on charge of things I would have made that the suggested goal, with him only surviving to reach the final chapter if you don't kill him here. Because I agree that the Julius rescue is a bit nonsensical.

Edited April 16 by Jotari

[Interdimensional Observer]

4 hours ago, ping said:

This also puts the Tornado spell into Leaf's inventory which... honestly seems not too bad. It's nice to have a very light 1-2 option, and Tornado makes up for his not-too-impressive Mag stat. He can pass his Flame Sword to Seliph, Ares or Oifey at the start of the next chapter.

If you weren't doing Lewyn!Tine, Leif has a practical monopoly on Tornado, since ForsetiBoy doesn't need it. ...But Tine is Pursuit-less, and there's only one ring of that, which -if you're not egalitarian and willing to settle for a coin flip Adept proc for murdering- is probably going to Arthur. (EDIT: I completely skipped past you being egalitarian -but in Iucharba's favor.😅 No objection there, even if Tine complains.)

Leif in this situation has a monopoly on Bolognese -but the weight likely kills any desire to actually use that, and that Leif could always find something better.

4 hours ago, ping said:

Fun Fact: An important mechanic in the multiplayer of the strategy game Europa Universalis IV is "stab-hitting": If you have at least +50% warscore against a human opponent and you sent them a peace offer that has at most half of that value, their country will suffer a loss of stability if they refuse the offer. You can spend a resource to increase stability again, but it's too expensive to keep up indefinitely, and an opponent at minimum stability will be forced to accept the next incoming peace offer. So, part of warfare is to send diplomats to an opponent you want to peace out (in particular a secondary participant of a war) as frequently as possible, with once per ingame month being the optimum. I'm imagining Lewyn sitting at a PC hovering his mouse cursor over the "offer peace" button to click it the second it lights up.

Neato.🤓

Meanwhile Endless Space 2... is much more annoying with truces. If the enemy proposes one (some of the time, not all of it, I'm not sure why) and you don't have Influence (a currency akin to Culture + diplomatic/administrative capital) to refuse the truce, you'll be forced into it.😑 

4 hours ago, ping said:

 

I could make a joke about the Trinity Strike involving four platoons... but Arion, with his larger and more powerful group, stays behind at Thracia Castle.

I'm reminded of an art history course I took on India. There are depictions of Shiva that give the glorious god a total of four heads. Some show three heads, but three implies a fourth. Also, a fourth head implies a fifth IIRC, which represents the qualities of the divine that are beyond mortal comprehension. The other heads have symbolism too, yet what exactly each head represents varies from source to source -but basically add all the heads together and what it amounts to is Shiva Is Everything.

Is this all that relevant? Not really.🤓🙃

4 hours ago, ping said:

...yeah, I know, running right into Miracle range. I was just thinking "let's see if Arthur procs something" - he did - and didn't even consider that Forseti might have this low a hitrate.

You took notice, but fell into the trap anyhow. -You're definitely not alone in that.😉

4 hours ago, ping said:

I'll be honest, I had to laugh a little at this. I know, there's the precedent of Julius saving Ishtar earlier, but since he and Arion didn't really have any connection at all, this is still an extremely contrived way of letting Arion return in endgame. Manfroy could've swooped in, all "Mwahahahahhh, I shall brainwash youuuuuu!", and it couldn't have been sillier.

-But Julius INSISTED he be allowed to use the omniscient omnipresent invincible warp powers belonging to Cult-kun -corrected LEADING Cult-kun- conveys. The job is pretty boring otherwise. And Arion being a guy with holy pointy stick was enough of an excuse to tell Manfroy to buzz off.😛 (Alas, even as the Dark God Incarnate, Julius had to strike a bargain with his leading vicar, and in exchange for wrapnapping Arion, gave Manfroy total control over what to do about Julia. Not the wisest of compromises.😝)

Edited April 17 by Interdimensional Observer

[Jotari]

22 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Seriously, I should've just used the DLC in my Maddening run of Engage. But my stubborn ass just couldn't stop thinking "I need to beat it properly once so I prove I can do it." Well, I didn't. I'm the one crying a river now.

Hey, I beat Maddening Engage before the DLC ever came out. I guess that makes me a better Fire Emblemler than you. And you've seen my Eckesachs play log, so you know how mistake prone I am!

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

4 hours ago, ping said:

This also puts the Tornado spell into Leaf's inventory which... honestly seems not too bad. It's nice to have a very light 1-2 option, and Tornado makes up for his not-too-impressive Mag stat. He can pass his Flame Sword to Seliph, Ares or Oifey at the start of the next chapter.

So, the only potential Tornado users are Leif, Arthur, Tinne, Ced, and Coirpre. But of those, the latter four can only do so with Lewyn as their father. And the potential sons will have *-rank Wind and Forseti by default. So there's no real motive to give them Tornado. As such, Lewyn!Tinne is the only real competition Leif ever has for access to the Tornado.

Up to you whom you leave it with. Leif will have basically exclusive Bolganone access, but then again, Bolganone's higher Weight makes it less likely to Pursuit or Adept. Tinne can do Thoron regardless, which actually might be the better pick against the Rotenritter.

4 hours ago, ping said:

...and Johalvier can make use of the Killer Bow's low weight now. We'll see if I can get away with not giving this to Arthur for full Forseti onslaught against the bosses in the last chapters.

Whew, and I had thought Kaga wouldn't make good axe infantry until the next game! This Johalvier is cracked.

4 hours ago, ping said:

No Adept proc from Arion, so no entry in Seliph's "L" list, but he obviously doesn't connect with his 0% hit attempts, either.

I feel kinda bad for the wyverns in this game. All hunched over like that? Must have some mad scoliosis.

4 hours ago, ping said:

: "Ohh! And it's a lovely staff, too! Thank you, Papa! Thank you so much."

The way Charlot calls Hannibal immensely reminds me of Nikolaj in Brooklyn 99. Very wholesome!

3 hours ago, Jotari said:

What I like about Musar is that he actually has holy blood. Minor Forseti. This is almost certainly so he has the weapon rank to wield his Tornado tome, but it's fun to think of the story implications.

It's actually really kinda funny that there are no playable infantry classes with inherent A-rank in any offensive magic type. Like, who is writing these tomes that only a handful of people with the proper blood type can use? Unfortunately, it kinda undermines the magic types being threshed out. We have Wind Mages, but no Wind Sages. Or, maybe they could've made three types of War Mage: "Wind/Axe", "Fire/Lance", and "Thunder/Sword". Something along those lines.

Spoiler

OldMan he may be, but good on him for looking no day older than he did almost 20 years ago.

Actually, that was his father. Very OldMan.

Spoiler

I'm basing this on very little actual knowledge of the endgame, of course, but I'm not sure how valuable that additional staff user really is in the endgame. Even without Julia, you still have Lana, Fee, Leaf, Nanna, Tinni (in any ranked run, I'm sure she'll promote with ch.10's arena), and then Coirpre/Sharlow. How important is it really to have six instead of five? Even though not everybody can use all the important staves, I'm not convinced that it's that big a deal.

Oh yeah, I'm not saying Coirpre is a good unit, in any case. He might be the second-worst unit in gen II, after Hannibal. Oh, and in your listing of staffers, you actually forgot Ced!

I will say that, of these units, Nanna and Fee only have C-rank staves (unless Father Claud got around), while Leif tends to have a pretty meh Magic stat. So in the case of status staves, Coirpre will be one of your better options, especially with a magic daddy. 5 move sucks, but Lana is in the same spot, while Ced and Tinne are slightly better with 6. The Res boost (with Claud as his father) makes him resilient against enemy status staves and siege tomes - and likewise for Lene! You don't want your dancer sleeping on the job, after all.

Spoiler

Cry me a river.

@Saint Rubenio *flashes back to Pitfall Bridge map*

Spoiler

I'll be honest, I had to laugh a little at this. I know, there's the precedent of Julius saving Ishtar earlier, but since he and Arion didn't really have any connection at all, this is still an extremely contrived way of letting Arion return in endgame. Manfroy could've swooped in, all "Mwahahahahhh, I shall brainwash youuuuuu!", and it couldn't have been sillier.

I really like the idea that this might be Arion's and Julius' first time meeting. Like, he just warps in for this stranger who can use a super-powered weapon and shares a common enemy. And all his life, Arion will be forced to carry the indignity of having his skin saved by some edgy redheaded punk.

Edited April 17 by Shanty Pete's 1st Mate
More responses.

[Revier]

4 hours ago, ping said:

One, has there any rule of magic been established why this spell is dangerous for Julia to cast? And two, I can not believe that fuckin' Lewyn seems to be in charge of the treasury.

I love that they introduced magical, one time spells to go alongside their magical, one time weapon deliveries.

4 hours ago, ping said:

Manfroy could've swooped in, all "Mwahahahahhh, I shall brainwash youuuuuu!", and it couldn't have been sillier.

...I believe that is what they call foreshadowing.

Or just hacky writing. 

😎

4 hours ago, ping said:

And yet you do. Empress Deirdre was a talented priestess, and it looks like he inherited her skill with white magic. For Prince Julius, common warping and healing spells are the merest of trifles. He doesn't even need staves! But that's not the whole story, Seliph. Prince Julius's true power comes from something else entirely..."

The power of...CONTRIVANCE!!!!!! 😆

But yeah, that chapter ended pretty anticlimactically, and might've been one of the worst written chapters yet. Honestly, the game would arguably be improved if the entire Thracian arc were either: a. considerably refined or b. chucked out the window. Oh, boohoo, Kaga doesn't get to cutely "foreshadow" his future game or have Seliph avenge Quan and Ethlyn, cry me a river. Gen 2 is supposed to be the epic payoff for Sigurd's suffering, depicting his successor taking on and overthrowing the evil empire he inadvertently helped forge, yet they spend too much time on this mediocre sidetrack for not much payoff. 

[Jotari]

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

The way Charlot calls Hannibal immensely reminds me of Nikolaj in Brooklyn 99. Very wholesome!

It's actually pronounced Nikolaj.

1 hour ago, Revier said:

But yeah, that chapter ended pretty anticlimactically, and might've been one of the worst written chapters yet. Honestly, the game would arguably be improved if the entire Thracian arc were either: a. considerably refined or b. chucked out the window. Oh, boohoo, Kaga doesn't get to cutely "foreshadow" his future game or have Seliph avenge Quan and Ethlyn, cry me a river. Gen 2 is supposed to be the epic payoff for Sigurd's suffering, depicting his successor taking on and overthrowing the evil empire he inadvertently helped forge, yet they spend too much time on this mediocre sidetrack for not much payoff. 

How to improve Chapter 9.

Step 1. Have Travant be the one to propose a peace treaty right from the very start. Seliph (and idk, Shannan) wants to take him up on this, but Lewyn and especially Leif, if he's still alive, argue against it saying they can't trust Travant and that he'll renege and seize North Leinster the moment they leave the continent. At Thracia castle Areone even suggests this very idea to Travant "I see what you're doing father, the moment they're gone we'll take all of the north ourselves. Thracia will be reunited at all." To which Trvant answers "...Maybe."

Step 2: Travant dies the same way. All that stuff is fine.  We can add the extra line Ping wanted, and also make it clear that Areone's lines supporting treachery against the Heroes his motivating him. Not only is his daughter killed or seemingly killed, but his son is turning out like him in the worst ways.

Step 3: Now, with Travant dead, Seliph can argue for peace with a still belligerent Lewyn and Leif.

Step 4: Use the suggested interpretation where Areone is listening to the 99% of the time Travant and not the 1% of the time. Instead of referring to Travant's last lines as the reason for his rejection of peace, he makes a statement that he literally cannot understand what Travant was trying to tell him because it's so contrary to what he's always been told. Maybe have Julius show up earlier to observe the battle and give Areone someone he can talk to to explain his motivation (and provide some subtle threat against turning on the empire).

Step 5: If Julius has to rescue Travant, then let Julius and Seliph actually talk to each other a bit. Make a moment of it instead of an out of nowhere WTF.

Edited April 17 by Jotari

[Revier]

Oh boy. If you asked me to "fix" Genealogy's story, I could spit out an entire novel. 😆

But that does overall look like a solid improvement over the current setup, even if it darkens some of Travant's "greyness". Of course, that wouldn't really fix either Chapter 7 or 8, which I meant to include when mentioning the "Thracian arc", but I'm reasonably confident we could find a way to improve those too.

[Jotari]

6 minutes ago, Revier said:

Oh boy. If you asked me to "fix" Genealogy's story, I could spit out an entire novel. 😆

But that does overall look like a solid improvement over the current setup, even if it darkens some of Travant's "greyness". Of course, that wouldn't really fix either Chapter 7 or 8, which I meant to include when mentioning the "Thracian arc", but I'm reasonably confident we could find a way to improve those too.

The intent wasn't to darken Travant's greyness. It was actually a little the opposite. The point being that he's acted so treacherous for so long that people just plain won't believe him if he tries peaceful cooperation.

[ping]

re: Holy Blood on John Constipatius - Honestly, I stopped checking for that on semi-generic bosses. But if Lewyn's character is representive for the paternal side of his family, it isn't too surprising to see Forseti blood appear unexpectedly anywhere in Jugdral.

8 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I have one wisecrack: Why does Cairpre not get this?!

Being Cairpre is suffering.

Lex!Coirpre will most likely cap his Def at 18, but still and reach 60+ HP. He won't be hurt by such insignificant hits.

8 hours ago, Jotari said:

Arion can certainly be a pain to deal with. One solution is to actually just not fight him and seize his castle from beneath him. And if I were on charge of things I would have made that the suggested goal, with him only surviving to reach the final chapter if you don't kill him here. Because I agree that the Julius rescue is a bit nonsensical.

I almost expected it to work like that, so yeah. Even skimmed through the endgame wiki page before fighting him to see if there's any "if he survived" conditional for Arion's appearance.

8 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Meanwhile Endless Space 2... is much more annoying with truces. If the enemy proposes one (some of the time, not all of it, I'm not sure why) and you don't have Influence (a currency akin to Culture + diplomatic/administrative capital) to refuse the truce, you'll be forced into it.😑 

In the very old Civ games (1 and 2, dunno about 3), you can be forced into a truce if your country is a republic or democracy. If an enemy asks for peace, or you want to declare a war, there' a chance (50% for republic, 100% for democracy) that your parliament overrules your warmongering ways. If you want to be a warmongering democracy, you can build the United Nations world wonder, which will provide your parliament with an excuse to be warmongering 50% of the time... but it also forces any enemy to offer you peace if you contact them, so wars will still end prematurely all the time.

8 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

You took notice, but fell into the trap anyhow. -You're definitely not alone in that.😉

Look, you can't expect me to do basic maths when fire embling.

5 hours ago, Shanty Pete&#x27;s 1st Mate said:

Whew, and I had thought Kaga wouldn't make good axe infantry until the next game! This Johalvier is cracked.

Wellll, his wife is stronger (+1), faster (+10), sturdier (+6 HP), more skillful (+13 Skl), more magical (+1), and luckier (+12) than Johalvier. He does have +1 Def and +2 Res over Larcei, at least.

5 hours ago, Shanty Pete&#x27;s 1st Mate said:

It's actually really kinda funny that there are no playable infantry classes with inherent A-rank in any offensive magic type. Like, who is writing these tomes that only a handful of people with the proper blood type can use? Unfortunately, it kinda undermines the magic types being threshed out. We have Wind Mages, but no Wind Sages. Or, maybe they could've made three types of War Mage: "Wind/Axe", "Fire/Lance", and "Thunder/Sword". Something along those lines.

Definitely seems like something a modern FE game would do (although I don't know about the differing physical weapons). Maybe it can still be blamed on storage capacity on the SNES cartridges.

4 hours ago, Revier said:

The power of...CONTRIVANCE!!!!!! 😆

Julius ex machina.

3 hours ago, Jotari said:

Step 5: If Julius has to rescue Travant, then let Julius and Seliph actually talk to each other a bit. Make a moment of it instead of an out of nowhere WTF.

Julius could also make an appearance earlier - maybe when Travant dies, to offer Arion support (the reinforcements coming from the northwest) and tell him how friends are supposed to help each other, and how important mutual trust is for him, and how repugnant he finds the idea of let a friend hang out to dry.

[Saint Rubenio]

11 hours ago, Jotari said:

EDIT: I see two other people have already commented on Musar's blood purity before me. But I'll have you know I actually had my full comment about him written out before either of you guys posted. I just had to cycle to the train station immediately before I could finish writing about Arion.

You know more about Gen bossmen than I do. Heck, while you were writing your in-depth, well thought-out post, I had to go on google because I thought Ridale was the one with the holy blood.

11 hours ago, Jotari said:

Hey, I beat Maddening Engage before the DLC ever came out. I guess that makes me a better Fire Emblemler than you. And you've seen my Eckesachs play log, so you know how mistake prone I am!

You probably are. I burned out really badly after the "get all the emblems back" map and never recovered.

2 hours ago, ping said:

Look, you can't expect me to do basic maths when fire embling.

Yeah, it's not like this is the one game series where you can do basic math with the stats displayed and actually get a result you can use for anything lol

...Seriously FE is so cool for that.