SS Chapter 7: It's Quiet...

Yup. That's Renvall up ahead. I think this might actually be the only time that particular mini-sprite gets used, too.

"Rumours"- they mean blatant enemy disinformation. They do kinda imply they're sowing the seeds in villages, but we haven't seen any of those.

"This is a breakout! First of all, are you even holding any prisoners?"

I, for one, highly doubt that there just happened to be a peninsula perfectly placed for this trick to work. On the other hand, I'm not sure how the people of this time period would've made the lake themselves.

For some reason, we find ourselves following the advice "To find Ephraim, you've got to think like Ephraim".

Here we are at Renvall at last, then.

We get some shots outside the castle here.

As we heard the story.

Yes, Seth, I read the opening narration too.

By which I mean "throw all the girls at it and see what happens", as per usual.

Of course, we'll do it cleverly, by which I mean "don't let Neimi get surrounded by melee attackers" and so forth.

Oh hey, someone other than Eirika and Seth gets to talk!

Franz is Forde's brother, of course he'd pipe up. Sorry about the whole 'not letting you help' thing, but-

Gilliam, too?

We're doing a cast roll call! They usually save this for the final battle, and there is one of those, but we're close enough to an "epic conclusion" sort of fight, might as well squeeze one in here.

Vanessa is impenetrable.

I hope you are, Ross- if you're using him, you've probably got him into Tier 1 already. That's commitment.

Garcia, as a teacher to Ross, cannot help but continue to spout lines like a fortune cookie.

I'd ask why I want to steal things, but it turns out there's an answer.

You will be quite helpful here.

Nope. Couldn't dream of it.

Please have more confidence in yourself. Admittedly, being a Light Magic only attacker is kind of awkward.

...You know, if it's a trap, his luck's still terrible for getting in that situation, but he will have won the bet it's a trap.

It surrounds us, it penetrates us, it binds the continent together-

Time for a climactic battle of some description!

No big surprises here, though. There's still a battle inside to think about.

This is a Ballista, as seen in Fire Emblems 7 and 8. An Archer or Sniper can step in one and start Riding it, at which point they get access to the five bolts a Ballista is entitled to shoot. A Ballista can move around in this game, and has no limits on which directions it can shoot (both of which do not apply to Tellius, although the latter does apply to other games with stationary ballistae like FE6 and Three Houses), although it cannot move over Forests. Or really, most tiles that aren't Plains. They don't like letting these move around.

The Murray is a fairly standard cavalier boss, sturdy enough that it'll take some doing to take him down, but he'll probably be a chump before the Rapier. He's holding a Knight Crest, a promotion item for Knights and Cavaliers. Five characters can make use of this, one of whom (if you've been keeping count at home, the one we haven't met yet) is a woman. Ironically, I actually don't use anyone who needs promoting with a Knight Crest in the Ephraim route run. You'd think it'd be the Eirika route run that misses using it, considering Knights and Cavaliers typically don't have women in them this early in the series.

The mage south of the bridge (and a little east) is holding, but is not set to drop, an Energy Ring, the statup item for both Strength and Magic. I'd really like more of these rather than less, but the only way to get this one is to use Colm and that's more cheating than I'm comfortable with.

Vanessa in the back, Neimi in the front, do my formations ever resemble logical formations?

Well, here's the map, for what it's worth.

There's a house right next to starting position, which is good for a little exposition. An "adjutant" is typically the admin guy for a commanding officer in a military, as I am told- 3H uses the term to describe something similar, but different. With that said, I highly doubt Tirado's doing much admin.

...

Plotting behind Valter's back makes him a good guy, no matter how evil his plans are.

Neimi opens fire, because reasons.

I have no idea what this archer is going for anymore.

Lute takes point, as if those tiles beneath them are not transversible.

Oh good, they noticed. I was wondering whether they had. I did kill one of them.

The Murray is an unimportant chapter boss, and this brigade doesn't have any plot relevance. Which tells you a lot about his chances of besting us.

Weird they call him "General Valter's adjutant Tirado", though. We had a house for that exposition.

~30% dodge chances on plains? Neimi is becoming quite the archer, all right.

Vanessa heads up here to harass some mercs, since she can't kill them.

And Lute, careful to stand three squares away from Vanessa, picks a spot to attract some of these enemies.

Neimi stuck around to take the soldier.

Without Fog of War, there's nothing for Natasha to do, and there's no EXP to be gained. This is so frustrating.

One of these had to hit. I'm just glad it wasn't one that had to miss.

Vanessa is surprisingly good at taking hits. I don't know where she got it.

Although I'm seeing a lot of 9s on this screen.

When you oneshot a mage that can't damage you while he has favourable terrain, you start to think that you thoroughly outclass them. Which Lute does.

Not that this mage is technically any better off.

Did Lute dodge anything? I guess I wanted some healing for Natasha to do...

Skill and Defence! Lute's working on her off stats.

Vanessa flies right into the thick of danger. The ballista up there could mean business, and she doesn't have Lute Support.

Speaking of...

This one Fighter that wasn't quite close enough to hit Lute on the last turn is now a problem.

I guess I'll just have to play defence.

Neimi can pick up a kill Vanessa left behind while still playing catchup.

On forests, Lute's dodging is even better.

Oh hey, this guy. This is the guy with the Energy Ring, incidentally.

At least he gave Strength to somebody.

That was a miss. Fairly important it's a miss- although I think Vanessa's defence might be able to let her survive the hit, depending on how damage is calculated.

Not something I'm pushing my luck on.

Eirika can take a Fighter here.

And yay, more healing to do!

The forests here are so thick that the game likes to say going around them gets you further faster.

That's a lot of hit chance. Figures, though, with WTA. Still, 52.47 is pretty low, compared to some of the odds he might've had.

Note, by the way, how little I care about sending Vanessa in the company of axemen now.

I think I used a save state to visit this house without making Neimi lose ground to everyone else.

This old woman remembers something about the encounter with Ephraim!

...

Well, at least she remembered it existed?

Anyway, Neimi's really going this way. Behind the command list, you can see a mage. Him and the Fighter who spawned in the north are heading directly towards us- but we've been advancing so quickly that they haven't managed to meet up. I won't be making that bit easy for them, of course.

Vanessa and Lute get back into Support-building formation.

And Natasha gets some more healing done.

Neimi's going to finish that Fighter- apparently it was beyond Vanessa. It was an 83% hit she whiffed, at least- that's a little less than one in five.

That was a point of HP levelling up Natasha's healing.

Well, this could go several ways.

Neimi can handle a damaged Fighter. Actually, I think Vanessa came short on the oneround.

These guys, though, are no such problem.

Strength and Defence at the ready, because apparently this Vanessa is a Knight now.

Finishing this guy, and...

Oh, dangit, out of range.

Kind of awkward, but I guess I didn't want Lute shot twice.

Not that it was much of a threat- what do you mean, Eirika and Lute took the same damage?

...Oh right, Lute has a Support up.

Neimi's time has come.

When I say any archer or sniper can ride a ballista, I meant ours, too. That's why I didn't want this one running out of ammo.

This is what a ballista weapon looks like. Huh, looks like Strength factors into it- Vanessa would be oneshot by one of these bolts. That "20 Weight" is a little weird- these things are technically bows in practice, which means that, using endgame ballistae, I somehow managed to get Rebecca to double a particularly unfortunately burdened enemy using a ballista. I have no idea why the game allows that.

For now, though, it's about time something was done to these guys-

7% crit. These things can crit. In enemy hands, they usually won't, unless they're the Killer variety.

Vanessa takes the other archer.

And we've got one more mage to finish off.

Also the Murray. Although he's not going to be much issue.

Come at me

And learn your folly.

He's not gonna be impressed by that, is he?

That's pretty cool, though.

I'll be taking this, thanks.

Oi! The 20 Weight of a Ballista means it's also a lot harder to dodge while riding one.

Bad mage.

More stats! More power! More avoid!

...Wow, you're still on 3 Defence.

Yay?

Natasha finishes up her heals. Neimi's damage will take a while to cure.

Eirika's waiting on this while I finish my business.

You need to spend an action Exiting a Ballista- and this also means you can't leave the field of range until you do.

More magic for Natasha.

And Vanessa and Lute gain a second Support rank. Figured it'd be worth my time.

We made it inside the castle.

...Where there'd no doubt be more enemies to deal with-

Oh. He's blue. Never mind.

Orson! Wait, Orson?

That is definitely alarming news.

...That's one way of looking at it, yes. Whatever separated Ephraim and Orson must be rather serious indeed.

Orson supports the "Ephraim was captured" story.

Luckily, he managed to make a getaway.

Eirika grows concerned about what Orson's been up to over the timeskip- and, perhaps more worringly, what he's not been doing.

...Well, that can only be bad news. (It's also probably the truth- Orson hasn't been in his company recently enough to know what he's done now.)

A guide!

...Wait, how are we getting past the garrison?

Oh, apparently we're just at a lull of enemy presence.

...

...

...Something's off.

Well, same to you, Save screen.

Next time: ...What the game just said.