Silly Micaiah is captured by the enemy, and we go to rescue her. She is accompanied by Laura and two others, Aimee (our shopkeeper from POR) and Kurth, who is absolutely not relevant to the plot, and Ilyana who'll be helping us out in combat sometimes.
Map 1-3
Victory Condition: Escape
Defeat Condition: Any ally dies
Ilyana (Level 12 Thunder Mage)
22 HP 55%
6 Str 45%
12 Mag 50%
12 Skl 60%
13 Spd 30%
6 Luck 40%
3 Def 20%
9 Res 50%
5 Con
5 Wt
Ilyana is, right now, a terrible unit. Horrifyingly fragile with her 3 defense, and with unreliable offense. At least Micaiah hits hard. Thunder magic is weak and inaccurate, if crittier than the other forms of Anima magic, and except for one chapter in the End-game, just not worth it. We're going to use her for this chapter, and one other, and that's it. She also annoys me with her one-note characterisation. Oh, she makes a good pack mule when she leaves the DB and joins the army we'll be using in Part 3.
Welp, fun stuff. This chapter is arguably one of the most difficult in Part 1, as you're simultaneously juggling protecting weak units, killing things and recruiting a certain character (which I will even though it isn't necessary).
There are two basic paths you can take for this chapter, South-east or South-west. One will need you to open up a door and then block a chokepoint until all the enemies nearby die, while the other requires that you engage the boss sooner and has more enemies. I went for the latter.
First turn, we set up defenses - Sothe and Nolan protecting the weaker units. Ilyana and Micaiah get ready to clean up any survivors, and the one Knight coming our way. Aimee and Kurth are ordered to stay put. We're waiting for Aran to show up at the end of turn 1.
In Easy mode, he'll turn up right where your units are, making it extremely easy to recruit him. Not so in the harder modes, where he'll cheerily turn up south-west of them and try to kill everyone in sight. He has a javelin though, and we'll be using our lack of 1-2 range to lure him close enough for Laura to speak with him.
Recruiting Aran takes ages, not least because of the number of times I end up having to restart thanks to my less than stellar units not being able to slay the soldier reinforcements fast enough. We get there eventually, and the importance of shoving is demonstrated.
Shove, one of the new mechanics introduced in POR, comes in handy here if Laura, with her 5 mov and the penalty incurred by the thickets (2mov/3mov mounted), is not enough to reach Aran. Shoving only takes the turn of the shover, and you can shove a character some twelve or so times before having him attack if you so desire.
It's always bothered me, as well, how easily units defect from the enemy to join you. I mean, it's a good thing, but dammit, be more loyal you! Laura and Aran are practically love interests on the other hand, so he's forgiven.
Aran (Level 7 Soldier)
24 HP 50%
10 Str 75%
0 Mag 10%
12 Skl 75%
10 Spd 35%
6 Luck 35%
11 Def 70%
2 Res 25%
11 Con
15 Wt
Aran is just Aran really. He doesn't really suit my playstyle, so I don't tend to use him much, but he usually lands up as a little bundle of strength, skill and defense, with sub-par speed, which BEXP can solve. He's a good tank for the DB, but I won't be using him much this playthrough, as I generally prefer units that can actually double others. He's also got the bestest mugshot in the game, and looks bored as hell most of the time.
Now that we have Aran, on turn 4, we wait. Reinforcements pour in from the back, and it generally helps to hang around until turn 12 when they stop. Once those are dealt with, the slow crawl up to the boss begins. There are two armours blocking the way, and will be disposed of in the style to which we are accustomed, but first the Boss. He has a Discipline scroll that we were supposed to steal (but I forgot, so we didn't *facepalm*). Sothe lures him closer, while dealing with the soldiers, while Nolan clean up any survivors. Micaiah blasts an armour.
1) Discipline - While I missed getting it, Discipline is a useful skill that gives a 2X multiplier to weapon experience.
The Boss dies in one hit, thanks to Sothe. He has a windsword, which misses, and lets us deal with him appropriately - THANIBOMB.
Another armour is disposed of, the turn after this, and we continue our trudge to the escape tile. Nolan and Sothe grab most of the kills, while Edward pokes people with his Windsword and gains a terrible level for his trouble (which is why we're going to be ditching him soon enough).
The unit standing on the escape tile has a longbow, a nasty weapon with 2-3 range, but also inaccurate. Nolan stands in front of this chap, while Sothe deals with enemies on the eastern side of the map. Micaiah lurks near Sothe, and later blasts the longbow user.
We have Aimee and Kurth escape into the Escape tile, and order our units into it as well. Micaiah hangs around until everyone is gone, and then flees.
We do this for extra Bonus Experience. This is the first chapter where you can actually control BEXP gains by having everyone escape before Micaiah. As getting the Turncount bonus is pretty unlikely this chapter, we go for this one instead. BEXP is rare on hard mode, and thus, every little extra helps.
This is probably the hardest chapter in Part 1, though not the most frustrating. It is extremely easy to die in the first 12 turns thanks to the reinforcements which are pretty strong. All in all, I'm pleased with my final result, although I'm still slapping myself for missing the Discipline scroll - only my fatigue from this chapter stopped me from doing a restart.
Next Time: TREASURE!
