Chapter 9A: (Little girls shouldn't join up in the Army, they just get in the way.)
Ok so despite hnd03 hinting otherwise, this chapter
◊ was a mess to do efficiently without death.
- The main trick I did with this chapter was ferrying someone across the bay with Tana, while the others took the land route. In this way, I would be able to save both villages from the pirates and maybe save a few turns thanks to the enemies near the boss fighting us earlier. This proved to be easier said than done however. A big reason for this was because the area near the southern village is full of archers, so Tana wouldn't have really been able to help the ferried unit out that much. In addition, the units by the southern village had a tendency to swarm whoever got off the ferry, which protected the pirate in the area from getting killed.
- Initially, I tried sending Garcia across the bay, figuring that his Hatchet/Handaxe would let him fight with the archers. But with his speed being a bit too low to get many doubles, they eventually defeated him. Then I tried sending Kyle across. He has a lot more defense and is more durable to the bows in the area. The problem here was that it made it much harder to save the western village. I was able to JUST manage it with Tana, but then she died. (Artur would have doubled most of the enemies, but he was too frail to fight for long, and Eirika would have been a great dodger but would have been swarmed by the archers)
- Finally, I got the idea of ferrying 2 people across the bay instead of one. I sent Garcia across first, and then doubled back with Eirika. This was the plan that actually managed to work, but even then, it was tough. Kyle and Artur had to do the northern path alone (which almost killed Artur thanks to poor placement by me) and Tana wound up having to get shot by an arrow after all.
- And then there was Amelia. While the units she arrived with charged at Kyle and got shishkabbobed, she doesn't move from her spot on the southwest corner of the map. Despite her lower movement, you can't really send units past her on land. In addition, she leaves the map on the 12th turn (to appear in a later chapter apperently). I was actually tempted to just kill her with Kyle, but she DOES have a Slim Lance that Tana could probably use, and Speedwings that I could give to buff someone (probably Garcia), so Eirika was forced to go back across the southern path in order to reach her in time. Meanwhile, Tana played ferry one more time and took Kyle across the bay so he could possibly help with the boss.
- The problem with this plan was that apperently Amelia leaves the map at the BEGINNING of Turn 12, not during the enemy phase like I thought, so Eirika was unable to reach her in time and I probably lost a turn or two for nothing. In addition, I just realized while I was typing this that I probably should have just brought Franz into this chapter and kept him on the sidelines until Amelia was ready to be recruited, which would have saved me the issue of doubling back in the first place.
- Eirika was the person who wound up defeating the Warrior Binks. She equipped a Silver Sword that was picked up a while back, and was able to defeat him during the enemy phase of the same turn. And at least we got the 2nd Rapier from that slightly jerkish villager.
The Random Number Goddess wasn't especially kind this time...
- Eirika: Level 19 Lord; HP: 30; Str: 10; Skill: 16; Speed: 16; Luck: 15; Def: 7; Res: 2; Con: 5; Swords: A
- Garcia: Level 18 Fighter; HP: 39; Str: 15; Skill: 11; Speed: 7; Luck: 10; Def: 8; Res: 3; Con: 14; Axes: A
- Artur: Level 17 Monk; HP: 28; Mag: 13; Skill: 12; Speed: 13; Luck: 5; Def: 4; Res: 15; Con: 6; Light: B
- Kyle: Level 12 Cavalier; HP: 32; Str: 11; Skill: 8; Speed: 8; Luck: 6; Def: 11; Res: 1; Con: 10; Swords: C; Lances: B
- Tana: Level 5 Pegasus Knight; HP: 21; Str: 7; Skill: 10; Speed: 14; Luck: 9; Def: 6; Res: 7; Con: 5; Lances: D
Turns: 14 (105 turns total)
