Friday, February 26, 2021

All Girl Challenge - Fire Emblem Shadow Dragon - Part 6: Journey to Liberation of Home

Hello. Robin Emblem is back and is finally continuing this playthrough.
 
The past months were of playing Genshin Impact, and having anime marathons. I actually have to read my previous post, to catch up on where I left off. With that aside, let's start.

Chapter 13

Marth and the League are on the way to Altea. They pass through Fort Menedy, but enemies lie in wait. The army here is called the Wooden Cavalry, known for their artillery might. Ballisticians, ballisticians, everywhere. (Insert Buzz Lightyear meme).

Luring them in is no problem. The problem is those with Arrowspate being a threat to my fliers, and the fear that they may do too much damage on my team. Fortunately, they don't, because they can't hit.

Kinda scary, because I have a lot of squishy units on my team.

We can see Astram on this chapter. Midia recruits him, and the lovers are reunited again.


Astram has a Silver Sword and a Wyrmslayer. Thanks for supplying my army with good weapons! The wyrmslayer will especially be useful when I near the endgame.

Visiting the village, we find Beck, the Ballistician with Thunderbolt. However, he's stuck in the woods, and can't approach the enemies quick. So he will be the bait on the next chapter.

If there was a female ballistician, I would've used her with her thunderbolt.

Astram was a nice bait, giving Athena a quick approach towards the boss, Grigas. I would've charged in quick, but he has Pachyderm, a somewhat powerful weapon, and supporting fire behind him.
 
There's a lack of enemies in this chapter, so it's not a grind and more of a rush chapter.

Grigas gives a hint on who we're fighting soon, and we see that it's Camus. He got Gradivus, so we have to be careful baiting him. I can still remember the trauma he gave me, when I played the game for the first time.


Chapter 14

Marth arrives at Gra Bastion. Gra was the one who attacked Altea, and seized Falchion. Now it's Marth's time for revenge on King Jiol, the one who killed his father.


Funny enough, Jiol panics upon learning that he's under attack. He even spills that it was the idea of Gharnef for the attack of Altea.

Okay, looks like a straightforward chapter, and I believe Catria will be arriving on this chapter, since it was mentioned that the Whitewings are coming.

River. Forests. It made using Beck as bait difficult, since he can't move forward fast. I'll let him be beaten up by Jiol then, once he goes through all those obstacles.

Visit the village to the west, and we see... Camus! Well, we shouldn't know him yet at this point.


Okay, turns out it's both Palla and Catria both arriving, and they are so underleveled. At least we get more fliers. No need to be wary about their range, as they won't attack, and instead will go straight to Marth.

  

After recruiting them, it's a Pegasus Knight ambush. It's time to grind our new units. It's not easy though, as they have low stats, and cannot take many hits. For support, I should've made Minerva come back to them immediately, after intercepting the thief at the lower right, together with Caeda.

The Pegasus gank seemed endless. I was so lucky with Catria dodging those javelins, and avoiding death a lot of times. After a lot of turns, the reinforcements finally stopped, and I barely made it out without anyone dying. What made it more annoying is the Cleric with the Fortify staff, making retaliation on enemy phase useless.

On the bright side, it's healing galore for Maria. Hope she reaches level 20 after this chapter.

Jiol wields a Silver Lance (equipped), and a Killer Bow. I want to avoid the critical proc, but attacking head on is useless because of his defenses. The easy way, I just let Lena and Linde attack him, so he falls without being able to fight back.

         

And it was easy, thanks to the low RES of a General, and low speed too.

At the end, they don't find Falchion, and they suspect Gharnef has taken it with him. Even with Altea so close, they have to turn away and go after Gharnef first.


Chapter 15

Marth takes a detour to Khadein, to confront Gharnef, and get back Falchion.


Ah, a desert mission. However, it is not the recurring treasure land desert, since it is based on the first game. Most enemies are mages, so it's easy grinding for our two new fliers, and also for Linde.


Gharnef approaches my team immediately, which I don't remember him doing in my previous playthroughs.. Must be because of the difficulty setting. Gharnef can't be defeated, but he can attack with powerful magic. At least I have some fodders to take his hits, before he leaves after a few turns. Worst case, my fliers will be baiting.

Linde, Catria, and Palla appreciates the chapter as they can grind well. They can soon catch up to promotion. If only I can get some more Master Seals the soonest. I have many units up for promotion.

I did not even notice how scary the boss unit is. The sage wields a Swarm tome, a long ranged magic, but has bad hit rate, so coming near using the fliers is no challenge.

    

After the battle, Falchion can't still be found. Gotoh contacts Marth, and tells him of Starlight, the magic that can defeat the shields of Imhullu.


Chapter 16

Marth and the League marched back home, after their encounter with Gharnef and his Imhullu. Freeing Altea has become his priority, before going after Gharnef and retrieving Falchion.


Villages to the west, this is where we pick a hero or a paladin, and we see forts at the top of them. Pretty sure reinforcements are going to come from them.

Looks kinda obvious, right?


I split my army into two. Marth and the fliers heading west, and the rest headed south through the prison cell. Julian opens the lock, and Xane escapes, marching west. Surprised that Xane can also cross the sea. I guess that's the perks of being a shapeshifter.
 
Hold up, he said other people. How did he swim the sea again?

 
I picked Arran over Samson, because Arran has a Silver Lance, and a Killer Lance. Samson only has a Silver Axe.
 
Master Seal is received from one of the prison guards, and I let Linde be the next to promote. She turned out great as a mage, and now to be a Sage, so she can also be a partial healer.

Hooray for another mage/healer.

The horseman enemy became Catria's favorite enemy to finish off. She can ORKO them, then receives a lot of exp from them. Palla has to last hit them, as she does not enough speed to double.
 
At the east, it's a bit of a struggle. Looks like I put all the better units on the other team, and left the weaker ones here. No choice but to use the block strategy, until Palla and Catria finally comes close enough to lure some away.
 
We can see an arena near the shops, but it's a gamble, and I don't want to make the challenge too easy because of the grind, so I just left it out.

Time for the boss battle. Oh look, another General unit. This time, he wields both Killer Lance, and Killer Bow, so it's time for a quick kill. Linde can easily kill him with a double of Elfire, but I just let her leave a bit of HP, so Catria can leech off the exp.
 
           

Altea is freed?, Yes, except for the castle. Marth prepares to kick out every last of the enemy.

Here are the stats of the army at the end of Part 6.

    

    

    

    

    

And that wraps up Part 6. For Part 7, it's liberation of Altea, then Marth's quest for Starlight.

Thursday, September 24, 2020

All Girl Challenge - Fire Emblem Shadow Dragon - Part 5: An Army is Finally Forming Up

Hello, and welcome back to my challenge. We now go to where Maria is held, and perform a rescue mission.

Chapter 10
 
While some members of the League do not believe Catria, and suspect a plot by Minerva herself, Marth takes her word and marches on Castle Deil. Marth has seen Minerva in their previous encounter, and sees that she is not that kind of person. Time to rescue Maria, another healer.

Minerva left her post, since she wants to see her sister Maria. The enemy sees Marth and his League attack, and gets ready to engage.

At the start of the chapter, I used Warp on Marth so he can immediately stop the thief unit from taking the treasures. Since Marth is the only one who can gain experience points at this point, he is the one who mainly defeats the enemies.


The map has a nice blocking areas, so funneling them into single file is the way to. While the generic units block them, the group rushes to rescue Maria, and around that area makes their stand.

There is a hero unit nearby who has a Master Seal. Finally, someone can already change class, and continue battling for more experience points. I've been waiting for this moment.
 

After rescuing Maria, Minerva will go to Marth and join the League. Minerva has decided to rebel. The Whitewings were scattered across different areas, as to not be a threat, so it's up to us to join them all together again.


I decided to give the first Master Seal to Caeda. This will give her enough defenses, to be able to tank hits, while having high speed for dodging. Compared to Minerva, they have a huge difference in their stats.
 
There are more enemies that were marching in than the ones seen in this screenshot.

I did not want to repeat the same mistake of blocking with someone who can ORKO enemies, so I put Minerva to block the enemy march, as she is slower, and weaker. There were Horsemen units, and I had Caeda bait them. Thanks to the nice defenses that she gained upon class change, she can take a hit from a bow if she fails to dodge, and use the Javelin to defeat them. 

As Minerva also has kinda bad avoid, she gets hit most of the time, so it's free healing for Maria.


We march to the boss unit... another General, Zharov. He could've been a scary unit like the previous bosses, but on the irony, he only wields a Steel Lance and a Javelin. Minerva and Caeda can tank him with ease, and only used their Iron Axe to slowly chip away at his HP until he falls.

At the end of the chapter, Nyna talks about Pontifex Miloah, and her daughter Linde. Linde can use the magic Aura, which can be useful in defeating the forces of evil. Looks like we'll be getting her soon.


Chapter 11

Marth and the League finally arrives at Archanea. It's time to free the palace from the enemy.

I changed Maria into a mage, so she can level up faster, as healing is not really the best way to train at this point. When more low leveled units are recruited, I can consider changing her back to healer.


This map is the first time we see... Ballisticians! They have very long range, but are screwed when enemies are able to get close. They have ammunition for specific units like Thunderbolt for fellow Ballisticians, and Arrowspate for flying units. Why do we even care? There are only two of them playable in the game, both men.

We rush to the village to the east, as a thief is on the way to destroy it. Thanks to the high mobility of Minerva, intercepting the thief is successful.


We visit one of the houses, and we see a familiar face. It's Anna, and she talks about Jake. She even gives a hint on who should talk to Jake, stating that he would only give time to ladies. This scene is a must, in order to recruit Jake.

More enemies encountered, before Marth finally reaches the village.
 
 
Marth frees the village from the ruffian that took over, and tells the people to go home to their families. However, this guy does not, and removes the disguise. A trap, (oh, wait, that is for cross dressing guys). It's Linde, who has nowhere to go home to. She starts at... Level 1 Mage. Really now?
 
So I now have two mages on my team. I'll consider changing Maria back to Cleric on the next chapter.
 
 

There is also a manakete among them, and serves as the boss unit for this chapter. Funny enough, he's still not strong enough to be a threat to my overpowered Caeda.

The rest of the chapter is pretty straightforward. Just beware of the bow users, and Jake's Arrowspate. Caeda has superior movement too, which made her easily fly to Jake, and recruit him.
 
 
I can't have Jake finished off yet, as there is only one cavalier and one ballistician (with the worst weapon) left. He will be the master bait of the next chapter.


The League successfully gets control of the castle gates, however, it is not over yet. They still have to free the castle, and there are hostages held in there too.


Chapter 12

It's time to take back the ancient Archanea Castle from Grust's control. There are also prisoners who need to be rescued.


Did I say rescue the prisoners? I meant, rescue that one prisoner. Midia is the only female in the group.
 
We start with beating up the thieves that will attempt to steal the treasures, then slowly approach the prison cell where Midia is held. Of course, I give most of the kills to Linde and Maria, so they can get stronger soon, and have dedicated magic users.
 
We rescue Midia, but it does not trigger special scenes with Marth or anyone in my team. A Paladin unit is nice to have in my team, with high mobility and good resistance. However, I have two high movement units already, Caeda and Minerva. Let's see what I will be doing with her.
 
 
There are two Master Seals that can be found in this chapter. The first is from this Paladin named Heimler. The second one is located in a treasure chest. A good time, I can promote two more level capped units.


The first one, I gave to Maria, so she can do some more healing, without wasting any experience points. The second I gave to Athena, as she is the remaining one who is currently at Level 20. I now have more good fighters.


 Reinforcements show up at the east of the map, behind where we start off. Caeda took care of them. She just needs to kill off the Horseman, which she can actually do, and defeat the accompanying cavaliers during enemy phase.


The enemies did not pose much of a threat, and here we are, facing the boss of the level. Volzhin is too easy, because of his low defenses.


Taking back Archanea castle is a success. We receive Parthia, one of the Three Regalia. Mercurius and Gradivus are taken by the enemy. Now to see if there are units in my team who can be a sniper to use the bow.

Are we done with this part? Not yet, as we still have Chapter 12x.


Chapter 12x

After taking back Archanea castle, Marth's group liberate the remaining areas of the kingdom. However, the western area is not yet liberated, as Horace, the traitor, is having his last stand there. Marth and his team marches on to bring the traitor to justice.
 
 
The map looks simple, no thieves in sight, so no need to rush the villages. Horace mentions that he will not pursue enemies. He will only strike when enemies are in range. This would mean we can focus on Grust units, before we approach him.

Say what? He's not a traitor?
 
When you visit the villages, they will tell you the truth of Horace being a traitor. He has to do it to protect the villagers. For this chapter, we can actually recruit Horace. We have to complete the chapter without him dying.

Some guides would say that he is the best General to have, but I haven't tried using him even before, because I stuck with Draug. Anyway, this is an all-girl challenge, so I just decided to beat up Horace. He only has a Steel Lance as his weapon anyway.


Sorry Horace, but I need the experience points more than saving you, and taking your Steel Lance.

What's funny is visiting the other village after his defeat.

Help him? Too late, he's already dead.

The best part is the boss.

Dejanira uses only a Steel Lance, so that means a free kill for my mages, Linde and Maria. With him defeated, we now clear Chapter 12x. We are now halfway in the challenge.
 

Now for a status update of my ladies.







Stats are pretty bad for some units, but I hope they'll still turn out well.

That's all for part 5. I'm glad that we are having more units in the team. We can now clear chapters without much difficulties, unlike when we started with two units only.