FE4: Breaching the Tough Walls of Conote
Jul. 28th, 2012 01:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mark_asphodelI feel sorry for Blume.
He's not grand enough to be a tragic hero like Alvis or Trabant, but he's not a complete scumbucket like Chagall or Levin's uncles. He just carries the feel of "wrong man, wrong place, wrong time," like he'd have been a fine Duke of Freege or a decent colonial administrator if not placed into his position by a culture that sprang out of hell. It also seems pretty convincing to me that his obsession with LeafCo and Lenster was a catalyst for his ruin, and honestly in storyline terms he has a damn good reason for being frustrated by their cockroach-like resiliency. LeafCo tried to murder him (assassinations are by definition murder-- let's not kid ourselves). LeafCo, or a substantial portion of it, got away[*]. LeafCo gonna pay in blood for it.
* Basically any of Leaf's native supporters in FE5 over the age of twenty-four was probably involved in some capacity. Hell, Selfina probably was in on it, and she was a kid at the time. I suspect she had a good idea of what Daddy was up to, because Dorias isn't the sharpest planner around. I also take a pretty dim view of LeafCo getting into the assassination business because part of the reason we're supposed to cheer on Blume's demise is his role in the child-hunt activities. I see no evidence whatsoever ANYWHERE in canon that child hunts were going on circa 765. Alvis was in the driver's seat then.
Unfortunately for Blume, this time LeafCo has hooked up with Celice Army and have Aless the Black Knight on their side. Goodbye, Blume. And while Celice is intelligent enough to grasp the backstabbing complexities of what went down in the Manster District over the last twenty years, I doubt anyone bothered to explain it to him.
Anyway, this time Chapter 8 went extremely well until Ishtar showed up. Instead of following advice, I split Celice Army into roughly equivalent forces and had each half take on one of the mini-bosses (Ovo and Muhammad... such names!).
Each force consisted of:
One (1) durable mounted unit for chokepoint abuse and hit'n'runs.
One (1) Holy Weapon user for boss killin'
Two (2) magical-sword chip damage units
One (1) mage
One (1) ace non-Holy Weapon sword fighter
One (1) healer
One (1) Charismabot
BTW, Nanna, even Dew!Nanna, counts as chip damage, healer, and Charismabot in one go. If she could only double, she'd be pretty damned good. So the northern force defending Lenster was actually only six people (Lenster Trio 2.0, Tinny, Celice, Aless) and everyone else was down at Alster dealing with Muhammad (except Patty, who was creeping up between the lines to rendezvous with Faval... and Fee was off dealing with bandits). Despite this imbalance, the party at Lenster had a much-much-MUCH easier time of it. Part of it was the terrain; Lenster had a better natural chokepoint and Finn is still a hell of a lot better at sustaining damage than Oifaye, so exploiting the terrain was easier. Part of it was that all the odds and ends of Celice Army don't really make up for it when Aless and Celice are elsewhere. Even with Shanan and Lakche on hand. Anyway, everyone survived this time around and Exp was shared by everyone who deserved it. Then Vampa-Fetra-and-Eliu got lured into a thicket by the northern party and were promptly sent to wherever it is that bad little mage girls go when they're toasted. Then Patty recruited Faval.
Then Ishtar arrived on the scene. Holy shit. Aless could only get her down to 1 HP. Shanan was out of range, even with a Leen-assist. And Faval kept missing. Trust me-- nobody else was remotely qualified to touch her. Thorhammer!Ishtar at 1 HP is every bit as deadly as Thorhammer!Ishtar at full HP, because she attacks first unless you're packing Mistoltin, Balmung, or Ichival. It's not a good way for Leaf or Tinny to get some Exp, let me tell you. And Aless was the ONLY person in that crowd capable of eating a Thorhammer blast.
Did I mention Faval kept missing? He finally landed a hit on her and Julius whisked her off to their love nest in Barhara. Then it was a happy march off to Conote until Blume landed a hit with Storm. I'd blame Delmud for dying again, but I was playing under the influence of multiple glasses of wine and admit to a likely miscalculation. Still, my Charismabot can't do me much use on the back lines, can he? Aless dealt with Blume, and now we're off to Manster to recruit Sety and really get down to business. :D
I forgot to do the Celice/Julia conversation before offing Ishtar. Celice was kind of busy at the time.
PS: Wedding bells for Shannan and Lakche. I can now go crazy with the Odo blood bonuses.
He's not grand enough to be a tragic hero like Alvis or Trabant, but he's not a complete scumbucket like Chagall or Levin's uncles. He just carries the feel of "wrong man, wrong place, wrong time," like he'd have been a fine Duke of Freege or a decent colonial administrator if not placed into his position by a culture that sprang out of hell. It also seems pretty convincing to me that his obsession with LeafCo and Lenster was a catalyst for his ruin, and honestly in storyline terms he has a damn good reason for being frustrated by their cockroach-like resiliency. LeafCo tried to murder him (assassinations are by definition murder-- let's not kid ourselves). LeafCo, or a substantial portion of it, got away[*]. LeafCo gonna pay in blood for it.
* Basically any of Leaf's native supporters in FE5 over the age of twenty-four was probably involved in some capacity. Hell, Selfina probably was in on it, and she was a kid at the time. I suspect she had a good idea of what Daddy was up to, because Dorias isn't the sharpest planner around. I also take a pretty dim view of LeafCo getting into the assassination business because part of the reason we're supposed to cheer on Blume's demise is his role in the child-hunt activities. I see no evidence whatsoever ANYWHERE in canon that child hunts were going on circa 765. Alvis was in the driver's seat then.
Unfortunately for Blume, this time LeafCo has hooked up with Celice Army and have Aless the Black Knight on their side. Goodbye, Blume. And while Celice is intelligent enough to grasp the backstabbing complexities of what went down in the Manster District over the last twenty years, I doubt anyone bothered to explain it to him.
Anyway, this time Chapter 8 went extremely well until Ishtar showed up. Instead of following advice, I split Celice Army into roughly equivalent forces and had each half take on one of the mini-bosses (Ovo and Muhammad... such names!).
Each force consisted of:
One (1) durable mounted unit for chokepoint abuse and hit'n'runs.
One (1) Holy Weapon user for boss killin'
Two (2) magical-sword chip damage units
One (1) mage
One (1) ace non-Holy Weapon sword fighter
One (1) healer
One (1) Charismabot
BTW, Nanna, even Dew!Nanna, counts as chip damage, healer, and Charismabot in one go. If she could only double, she'd be pretty damned good. So the northern force defending Lenster was actually only six people (Lenster Trio 2.0, Tinny, Celice, Aless) and everyone else was down at Alster dealing with Muhammad (except Patty, who was creeping up between the lines to rendezvous with Faval... and Fee was off dealing with bandits). Despite this imbalance, the party at Lenster had a much-much-MUCH easier time of it. Part of it was the terrain; Lenster had a better natural chokepoint and Finn is still a hell of a lot better at sustaining damage than Oifaye, so exploiting the terrain was easier. Part of it was that all the odds and ends of Celice Army don't really make up for it when Aless and Celice are elsewhere. Even with Shanan and Lakche on hand. Anyway, everyone survived this time around and Exp was shared by everyone who deserved it. Then Vampa-Fetra-and-Eliu got lured into a thicket by the northern party and were promptly sent to wherever it is that bad little mage girls go when they're toasted. Then Patty recruited Faval.
Then Ishtar arrived on the scene. Holy shit. Aless could only get her down to 1 HP. Shanan was out of range, even with a Leen-assist. And Faval kept missing. Trust me-- nobody else was remotely qualified to touch her. Thorhammer!Ishtar at 1 HP is every bit as deadly as Thorhammer!Ishtar at full HP, because she attacks first unless you're packing Mistoltin, Balmung, or Ichival. It's not a good way for Leaf or Tinny to get some Exp, let me tell you. And Aless was the ONLY person in that crowd capable of eating a Thorhammer blast.
Did I mention Faval kept missing? He finally landed a hit on her and Julius whisked her off to their love nest in Barhara. Then it was a happy march off to Conote until Blume landed a hit with Storm. I'd blame Delmud for dying again, but I was playing under the influence of multiple glasses of wine and admit to a likely miscalculation. Still, my Charismabot can't do me much use on the back lines, can he? Aless dealt with Blume, and now we're off to Manster to recruit Sety and really get down to business. :D
I forgot to do the Celice/Julia conversation before offing Ishtar. Celice was kind of busy at the time.
PS: Wedding bells for Shannan and Lakche. I can now go crazy with the Odo blood bonuses.
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Date: 2012-07-28 11:48 pm (UTC)Guess I'd forgotten just how big those FE4 maps are.
no subject
Date: 2012-07-29 07:16 am (UTC)