Bethany Plays: RD Chapter 3-2 Battle: Crush puny forces

Remember how I said PoR Chapter 26 didn't have a lot of bite to it? RD does this sort of thing a lot more.

Istvan is a near-capped Dragonmaster in Strength and Defence, and has some Speed compared to PoR bosses. Our Speed is just so powercrept that we can walk over this. His Res is also a good target, but Ilyana won't be coming down here to zap him.

Istvan has one Authority Star to his name. I feel like this as much an insult as it is praise on his skill as a leader.

This guy has a Statue Fragment on his person as well as a droppable Recover.

This guy has a stealable Reaper Card. Sadly, I don't acquire it. It would've been nice.

This guy has a Bolting tome. I briefly consider stealing it, but I forgot about the fact that Thieves need enough Strength to loot things with Weight and Heather currently does not have that Strength.

Mia and Mist exchange their banter on their way to this front. This will be the main direction of attack.

...Sorry, Mist, I think Mia's already in over her head.

Ilyana will go south and handle these forces.

She's surprisingly good at that right now, actually.

Almost too good. Three stats capped, Magic almost there, I'll have to keep on my toes to make sure she levels up well.

These guys could make Ilyana have a bad day, so Titania picks one off, making sure to stay out of range of the magic units so Ilyana can slap them.

Ike is going to hide in this corner.

That was fast.

This is why Mia has Disarm. For now.

Nephenee is less good at leaving people alive. Which, you know, is the goal in the end, but still.

Yeah, this is why Titania did the other one.

Already her level ups are beneath the three stat line.

Ilyana switches to Soren's Elwind to raise that rank up some.

And Mist gets a free kill.

Sometimes I wonder why I bothered giving this skill to her.

Well, this is inconvenient.

...Idea.

Idea failed. Unless...

I'm a genius! I don't know why I wanted this, but I have it!

Why is Ilyana taking so much damage from mages? I guess her Res is kinda low...

At least she's taking on the Thunder mages fine with triangle advantage.

There's some Res.

And a Wind Rank already.

Mist is liking this whole "infinitely reassignable skills" to deal with her cavalier nemesis.

She's not onerounding them yet. I'd be scared if she was.

I'm not sure Mist will be weak to these later. Mild spoilers, she gets the horse back for Tier 3.

In news relevant to this chapter, Heather doesn't scratch armours yet. I don't think we'll ever be seeing her one round Generals without Skills.

Wyverns are also kinda bulky.

So that's a lot of things up here to kill while maintaining momentum.

Not helped by this.

Or this. I think I've had three non-Strength levels to point at and say "I could've stolen that Bolting if I thought it was possible."

Oh come on.

Doink.

Excellent.

Mist takes care of this one.

Also excellent.

Hi, wyvern.

Bye wyvern.

Mist has now taken on a wyvern in one round. I was saying about Mist being scary?

BRING IT ON!

Well, OK, we need to get some healing done.

Yes, I call this a defensive line.

Ilyana heals up as she prepares for those Paladins up ahead.

Everyone give her a big hand.

Discipline OP.

So is Mia, once she gets online.

How? Nephenee is the most metallic thing within twenty kilometres!

Well, that's concerning.

~~The real terrifying moment is when Mist ORKOes with a Heal staff.~~

Part of the problem is Mia's using a Steel Sword.

Owowowowow

That's better.

...Now why did you go for Titania? I think this was the guy with the Reaper Card, too.

So much for him.

The axeless Paladin wants to hurt me too!

Mia finishes this guy off.

Every level up makes me more excited for Mist's promotion. I like Mist, what can I say?

Heather notices this, and might as well. That wyvern in the middle won't be shifted by Heather.

Nephenee charges into the brink.

And Ilyana takes another Vulnerary.

Probably not good.

Definitely not good.

Whew.

Yeah, yeah.

It's always the redundant hit...

Reinforcements! There's a swordie and a bowman.

So, I have a one use weapon that I can fish for Disarm with. That's how perfect my chance for Bolting was.

Ah well.

This is worth it.

Strength and Skill cap. Everyone is capping!

Mist heals Heather.

And Nephenee notices some Generals to punch.

Even more reinforcements! Also just swords and bows. I think there's one bow in this pack.

Bring it.

Mia moves up and heals.

So Heather can give her a push into that enemy's range.

...Not a kill over here.

But it is some progress to Wrath! Maybe.

I notice there's a wyvern over here I can bait with Titania while I'm waiting for the south side to get some reinforcements.

Well, this guy does a good impression of his hit odds. And who says small sample sizes are bad statistics?

Heavens only know what the statistics are on level ups.

There's something satisfying about rolling backwards under an arrow.

This is the guy I meant Mist to slap.

Yeah, she doesn't do it as impressively for all of them, but Mia did clean all of them out.

This is the wyvern Titania was supposed to be attracting the attention of. Had I noticed him sooner, the gambit might've worked.

At least Mist isn't helpless against them.

And she's getting better.

This is a more normal day in the life of Mia's Paladin slaying. ~~I say about a screenshot with her mid backflip.~~

HP Cap.

Ilyana finally gets some new friends.

A bow and a lance, incidentally. This guy has the higher accuarcy, so I kill him first.

Titania goes swimming. For a certain definition of the term.

Mist keeps at the wyvern. For some reason.

Ah, I see. Heather shanks him for the kill. Heather needs them too.

These guys are catching up on their own time.

Yeah, better this guy than the archer.

Ooh, a good level came out from between the couch cushions! I think that's a Magic cap.

More friends!

I want Nephenee countering those archers behind him.

At least this guy is of no danger whatsoever.

That range being highlighted is the south side, and Istvan will move. Heather ought to stay out of it.

That helps make her time worthwhile.

Mia can take a cavalier on her own with a Steel Blade. It was mostly the Sword making her fall behind.

Of course she gets these, too.

Ahahaha... precious.

And Titania introduces this guy to her sword.

And this stat screen to some numbers.

Well, it's time to fight Istvan.

This man has a few too few brain cells knocking around in that skull of his.

Aw, how cute, his hit chance is the same as his damage-

Well that made things ugly.

And his buddies are moving up too, though they can't attack anyone from their current positions.

This is a silver lining.

And now Ilyana has more friends. It actually takes that guy on the left so much longer to spawn than his buddies, it almost feels like an intentional joke.

Titania takes out one of these guys.

Axe rank before any new Sword ranks.

Heather helps herself to this guy's luxury healing item.

And some stats while she's at it.

Mia slaps him. I'm not killing him this turn, I want to dance with the priest down there and I think I have the spare time for BEXP.

Nephenee engages this guy and attracts the attention of that wyvern who ran away. It occurs to me that he might've gone for Ike given the chance, but I don't think he ever made any significant plays in that direction.

More Wind for Ilyana.

Mist relieves Heather of some stuff to help her steal the next treasure.

And heals herself, because duh.

Istvan, you had more of a chance of hitting Heather. Not that much, but...

Ah crap, now he's up there...

This was not as great an idea as I had hoped. Pulled through.

Should've guessed.

At least we've got the comedy option.

That could've gone much better.

You have capped how many stats now?

Titania can't finish off Istvan. OK, so it has to be Nephenee. And I should probably do it this turn.

Oh well, she can take this guy.

Oh good, we got one of these after all.

The Mastery skills have pretty good animations overall. I never get tired of the melee Sol animation.

Well, I wanted Mist to kill this priest, but that doesn't look like an option. Mia can give her a shove, but that only boosts her range by 2, and this guy is three squares away.

At least I can finally get the other Converse.

And this kill.

How hilarious that I get both of these. Incidentally, if Mia Disarms an axe- or lance-using enemy on the first hit, the second hit will no longer be calculated according to the Weapon Triangle. There's a minor interface spoiler in that the little arrows next to the weapons indicating WTA have disappeared.

I'd say this is the worst stat she could've gotten out of the four she has left, but no, she still has Magic. I'd honestly have preferred Luck or Res, but that's more because of a quirk of how Mia's Defence works.

Mist heals Mia, for lack of anything better to do.

I had a choice between Recover and a Statue Frag, and decided there are too few situations where Mend wouldn't suffice, while I can always pawn this off if I never come up with a use for it.

Nephenee finishes.

Oh hey, Wrath appeared after all.

Sure, whatever.

Is in the mail.

Istvan: I am Istvan, general of Lord Seliora’s royal army! You, leader of sub-human filth! State your name!
Ike: I’m Ike of the Greil Mercenaries.
Istvan: Greil Mercenaries? Hm. Never heard of them! You are just small-time bandits, yes? Argh! If we had left behind dead bodies of sub-humans, our reward would have been bigger! My lord is not pleased with heads of bandits!
Ike: Oh, I wouldn’t worry about our heads. You have no chance to win this fight. Leave while you can.

This man has not heard of the Greil Mercs. He really is hopeless.

And we're done.

This battle was supposed to be pretty easy.

The Begnion army is a disorganised mess and is not equipped to be doing much of any actual fighting.

One might call this tempting fate. I call it an accurate assessment.

Well, this is a problem.

Do you honestly think anything can kill that man? I'm not even entirely convinced the ultimate crossbow can do the job!

Soren points out that something else probably happened.

One thing you can pick out if you look closely is that Zelgius is leading the pack. He has a map sprite now!

Did we plan for it?

Well, let's not continue to be here.

Oh right, we have Skrimir as the commander.

You're a laguz, you can't take that many people in one turn!

Ranulf resorts to the ultimate backup strat.

Fight scene.

Ranulf will literally knock Skrimir out and drag him to safety if that's what it takes.

Skrimir calls his bluff.

Ike knows how a laguz thinks better than Titania. Figures, since he's one tail away from being one.

This is even a fight scene.

Skrimir misses his first blow, and Ranulf hits.

But Skrimir lands a crit.

Ranulf lost that little matchup.

"He can walk it off."

But Skrimir changes his mind anyway! Good job.

This is just hilarious to me.

Yeah, I think we should let someone else do it. And possibly help you walk too.

How selfless of you.

Skrimir:
陣に戻ったら……
回復の杖とやらを使ってやってくれ。

Ike:
あぁ、ライだけじゃなく
あんたのほうにもな。

Skrimir:
ふっ　俺はいい。
ベオクの怪しげな道具は好かん。

Skrimir tells Ike to get Ranulf to a "recovery wand" and heal him up. Skrimir refuses one for himself, citing distrust of beorc tools.

So let's have a chat with Zelgius!

This is a really important observation on Zelgius's part. Laguz armies characteristically will attack whatever is put in front of them. Observing that this army is disciplined enough to make tactical retreats tells Zelgius that this army is intelligent, and that he must meet them with well-thought out tactics of his own rather than simply relying on the basic tactics.

Also, in his one appearance in PoR, Zelgius was himself praised for being a flexible soldier, adapting to unusual circumstances. A neat parallel moment here.

Zelgius would like to help out the northern forces before establishing a plan of attack for the laguz.

Levail looks up to Zelgius a great deal. Much of his "knightly loyalty" part of being the Camus is not actually about his loyalty to the flag of Begnion, but his admiration for Zelgius. The GBA's Camuses are of a similar breed, come to think of it- often, it is a strong respect for their boss as a person rather than the history of their country that motivates them. I wonder, then, if the true representative of the Camus archetype in Three Houses was supposed to be Catherine, then.

Zelgius assumes Levail is in charge, so presumably he had some actual authority to his name. Zelgius describes him as one of Duke Gaddos's men, and Lekain is the highest ranked member of the Senate short of Sephiran. Perhaps this is why he seems entitled to this position.

Levail informs Zelgius that, despite whatever qualifications he might possess, he was not able to convince the nobles to pay attention.

Zelgius is amazed they made it this far.

Zelgius:
爵位が問題ならば……
ガドゥス公の代理として
同公爵軍を率いるルベール殿、
貴殿こそが適任ではないのか？

Levail:
ここにガドゥス公がおられれば…恐らく。
しかし、ガドゥス公は
中央よりお戻りにはなりません。
そうなると伯爵位の私の意見など……
何一つとして通りません。

Zelgius asks why Levail couldn't press his authority as Gaddos's representative. Since Lekain isn't here personally pushing his weight around, Levail's word on the matter meant little. Levail suggests that, if Lekain was here, he could've done some work.

Levail believes that Zelgius commands enough respect that the nobles will gladly fall in line.

Zelgius is less convinced. Part of this is that, since he reports directly to Sephiran, he has some... frictions... with the Begnion Senate.

And right now... things sound like they're not very pleasant on that front. The character in the top right has not been introduced to the player yet. (They are also male, as far as I can tell, and I don't believe there is any indication in-universe or out that they are gender non-conforming. As a Begnion Senator, probably for the best.)