Update 15: Cat

♪ A Guide for the Future ♪


We begin not with loading the battle, but by putting Abby in Priest. I'd prefer Mage, but she absolutely does not have the Reason level to be put in it. Being in Priest is better than nothing.
♪ No music ♪



♪ Respite and Sunlight ♪


It is the largest field in all of Fódlan. The grain it produces sustains the whole Empire. Wait... I sure hope we don't destroy all that grain...
It is considered the most suitable place for a large-scale battle.


I would fight them head-on.


That sounds like a certain someone we both know. But as you wish. We'll use whatever strategy you think is best. If the Black Eagle House bands together, we won't lose.
Our strength is superior. So if we do lose, it will be on your shoulders, Professor.
If you're not confident you can do this, just sit back and leave it to me.
The most you will do is make things worse. You'll just get in Lady Edelgard's way.
Are you two about to fight? Haha! Count me in! Wait, no. I think we all need to calm down.
We have no lack of opponents. I am ready to go hunting for our enemies!
Hunting isn't exactly... Well, I guess they're pretty similar, actually.
I'm just gonna hide in the fort and cheer everyone on. There, um, is a fort, right?
Sure, but it's deep in enemy territory. How kind of you to offer to cut through for us.
What?! No! That's not what I meant! Ugh, good work, Bernie...
This will be your first battle, won't it, Flayn? You don't seem nervous at all.
Haha, I shall give it my all!





♪ As Swift as Wind ♪


Time for a pretty unique battle.

As decided by the voting, here's our group for this fight.

Although I blanked and accidentally assigned Flayn as Abby's adjutant instead of setting Ingrid as someone's adjutant. Whoops.

Felix gets the Fruit of Life I hadn't used yet.

So, Gronder Field is pretty big. In addition, we're fighting two armies at once! Everyone is aggressive towards each other.

Let's look over the important units. All of the students (and the generics that replace them, if you recruited them) have some seriously nasty skills.

Watchful Eye: Grants Hit +20.
Bow Avo +20: Grants Avo +20 when using a bow.
Seal Speed: If unit damages foe during combat, foe suffers Spd -6 for 1 turn after combat.

It is very hard to dodge Ignatz's attacks, it can be annoying to hit him, and letting him hit you on the player phase will make that unit lose 6 Spd during the enemy phase.

Lorenz can only be engaged safely at 3+ range. He's also pretty durable against both physical and magic attacks. Thankfully, he's slow.

Distinguished House: Unit deals 2 extra damage while in formation with a battalion.
Seal Strength: If unit damages foe during combat, foe suffers Str -6 for 1 turn after combat.
Swordbreaker+: Grants Hit/Avo +30 when using a lance against sword users.

Unthankfully, he has Seal Strength, which means he not only drains 6 Atk from weapon users, but also 1 AS from anyone, if they're weighed down by their equipment. He's also fairly dodgy and accurate against sword users.

Hilda, also, cannot be engaged safely at 1-2 range. She will also shred any armored units you send near her, and in general packs a lot of punch.

Darting Blow: If unit initiates combat, grants AS +6 during combat.
Hit +20: Increases Hit by 20.

Dodging her is an issue, and she has 13 AS when she starts combat with the Short Axe. Don't let her do that.

This mage replaces Lysithea.

Heartseeker: Adjacent foes suffer Avo -20 during combat.
Dark Magic Avo +20: Grants Avo +20 when using dark magic.
Unsealable Magic: Prevents unit from being silenced.

Can't silence her, being in melee range tanks a unit's Avo, and she's incredibly hard to damage with magic attacks. Thankfully, the generic version of Lysithea doesn't get the bonus from Dark Magic Avo +20, since she can only use fire. Bit of an oversight there.

Leonie is...a cavalier. She hits pretty hard, but her AS is pretty low because of the Steel Lance. Even our slowest units can usually muster 5 or more AS, meaning she can't really double anyone we have. She's also very vulnerable to magic damage.

Rivalry: If a male ally is adjacent, unit deals 2 extra damage and takes 2 less damage during combat.
Desperation: If unit initiates combat with HP ≤ 50%, unit's follow-up attack (if possible) occurs before foe's counterattack.
Defiant Str: Grants Str +8 when HP is ≤ 25%.

Giving Desperation to a unit with 8 AS is...certainly a thing. She's obviously more dangerous on Maddening, yeah, but that can be said of anyone.

Oh, and there's our first Defiant ability. Defiant abilities are worthless garbage on both player and enemy units. That is my opinion on Defiant abilities.

Claude cannot be engaged safely at any range, and he's reasonably dodgy. He's a bit of an issue.

General: Nullifies instant death effects and halves damage from enemy gambits.
Close Counter: Allows unit to counterattack adjacent foes.

Close Counter means you can't just cheese Claude by attacking him at melee range—he'll still counterattack. General means you also can't wear him down with uncounterable gambits, though he does still suffer from stat debuffs and being rattled.

Raphael will absolutely murder any magic users you put in his range—and a bunch of other units, too, since he has 12 AS. In exchange, he cannot take a hit from magic users at all.

Tomebreaker: Grants Hit/Avo +20 when brawling against magic users.
Defiant Str: Grants Str +8 when HP is ≤ 25%.

Raphael can already double many magic users, Tomebreaker just puts salt on the wound.

This would be Marianne, if I didn't recruit her.

Miracle: Chance to survive lethal damage with 1 HP, if HP is > 1. Trigger % = Lck stat.
Warding Blow: If unit initiates combat, grants Res +6 during combat.
Unsealable Magic: Prevents unit from being silenced.

She has a 12% chance of enduring fatal damage at 1 HP, because Three Houses wants you to suffer. She's also nigh-invincible to magic damage if she gets to initiate combat. Not too threatening, though—her AS is low and she dies to a light physical breeze.

Moving over to the Blue Lions... Oh boy. This generic would be Ingrid, if we didn't recruit her.

Darting Blow: If unit initiates combat, grants AS +6 during combat.
Pass: Allows unit to pass through spaces occupied by foes.

You can't guard your frailer units with more physically durable ones, she will double everyone during the enemy phase, and probably during the player phase too, she will deal a bunch of damage twice, she's reasonably dodgy, she can't be hurt by magic, and she can take a bit of a physical beating. Sound fun? Of course it does.

Ashe is of no threat to us.

Lockpick: Allows unit to open doors and chests without keys.
Defiant Avo: Grants Avo +30 when HP is ≤ 25%.

I guess he gets dodgy when he's at...checks notes...7 HP or lower. At 8 AS and 10 Prt, though, you'd have to really try to leave him that low.

He is standing on a ballista, though, which lets him pelt us with double-digit damage attacks at 3-10 range. That's...that's pretty annoying.

This would be Felix, if we didn't recruit him.

Darting Blow: If unit initiates combat, grants AS +6 during combat.
Axebreaker+: Grants Hit/Avo +30 when using a sword against axe users.

Honestly, even if this were actual Felix, and therefore had the Crest of Fraldarius, he'd still be non-threatening. He has a battalion on, meaning he would lose out on the +5 damage from Lone Wolf. His AS is also pretty unimpressive, owing to the Steel Sword. He has decent HP, but his Prt and Rsl are nothing to write home about.

This would be Sylvain, if we didn't recruit him.

Death Blow: If unit initiates combat, grants Str +6 during combat.
Swordbreaker+: Grants Hit/Avo +30 when using a lance against sword users.

A nightmare for sword users, pretty average otherwise. Both of his lances tank his already unimpressive AS.

Dedue will stop weapon users in their tracks, and will die the second a magic user looks at him funny.

Defiant Def: Grants Def +8 when HP is ≤ 25%.
Armored Blow: If unit initiates combat, grants Def +6 during combat.

Seriously, just send a magic user at him. He only has 4 Mv, he's of no threat to you.

This would be Mercedes, if we didn't recruit her.

White Magic Avo +20: Grants Avo +20 when using white magic.
Miracle: Chance to survive lethal damage with 1 HP, if HP is > 1. Trigger % = Lck stat.
Unsealable Magic: Prevents unit from being silenced.

Offensively, she's no threat. Defensively, she's got White Magic Avo +20, which is annoying, but not insurmountable.

Dimitri has a lot of Atk, but his weapons tank his AS badly.

General: Nullifies instant death effects and halves damage from enemy gambits.
Defiant Str: Grants Str +8 when HP is ≤ 25%.

Meh.

This would be Annette, if we didn't recruit her.

Seal Speed: If unit damages foe during combat, foe suffers Spd -6 for 1 turn after combat.
Unsealable Magic: Prevents unit from being silenced.

Ehhhhhhhh. Standard magic user, she just has Seal Speed.


Abby and Edelgard both have Authority C now, so I bought some C rank battalions for both of them, and put Model Leader on both of them. These battalions will rank up fast.

Let's roll.
♪ No music ♪




Remember, we're not just fighting for honor. There's a prize at stake!
It's almost time to begin. Steel yourselves, everyone.














♪ Blue Skies and a Battle ♪











As long as Ashe is manning that ballista, he can hit one unit for anywhere from 10 to 20 damage a turn, depending on who he's hitting. We want to unseat him as soon as possible.

The reward's kinda shit, but hey, might as well.

Also, this is the other battle in the game, after the mock battle, where units being defeated does not remove them from your roster on Classic mode.


First order of business is to storm that hill.

These six people will comprise our central force.

Meanwhile, these four will try to attack the Golden Deer on the right.



Ow. Thankfully, ballistae cannot double, though they can crit.

Ferdinand is reasonably evasive at full HP.

Confidence: Grants Hit/Avo +15 when unit is at full HP.

Not very evasive, but reasonably so.



Since we have two enemy armies, there's two separate enemy phases. The Blue Lions take their turn first, then the Golden Deer.

If we were playing as the Blue Lions, the Black Eagles would take the first phase, followed by the Golden Deer. If we were playing as the Golden Deer, the Black Eagles would again take the first phase, followed by the Blue Lions.

The Golden Deer, irritatingly, start advancing towards the Blue Lions. We don't want that. Bad things happen when either side gets too many kills.

Bahaha, even Caspar can double these Cavaliers.




There's one.


And now both Armored Knights blocking us are out of our way.

Annoyingly, the first and last steps up to the central hill are Stair tiles, meaning cavalry units suffer severe movement costs to traverse them. Ferdinand would've been able to reach Ashe this turn, otherwise.

Unless we break out a 2-3 range gambit!

Nyeh heh heh.




Both Caspar and Mercedes can survive one turn of combat.

Caspar can survive more obviously, but Mercedes can't usually— Oh, you get my point.



Dorothea gets hit by Ashe again.

And now the Blue Lions Pegasus Knights are at just the perfect range for us to have a hard time reaching them, but they can easily reach us.

This'll be fun to deal with.





And now the Golden Deer are going to try to take the hill too.

...Sure.

A big clash is gonna start soon.


Bernadetta can snipe one of these jerks, at least.


Not a kill, but it locks that Pegasus Knight down, at least.


And then Marianne zaps the pegasus down.

I have legitimately no clue why the Pegasus Knight wants to go for Abby, who she has 50 Hit against. I absolutely will not question it, though.



Caspar pummels the hell out of Ignatz, and gets a mediocre level for it.



Ashe goes for...an Alliance mook. Sure.

I guess the Pegasus Knight went for Abby because, if she hit both times, she could've killed Abby. The odds aren't in her favor there, though.

Ah, cripes, the Lions and Deer are fighting each other now.


You fools! Don't do that!






Dammit, I forgot to equip Felix's Iron Sword instead of his Armorslayer.





That's Not-Ingrid out of my hair, thank the gods.

Bernadetta is exceptionally strong right now. I did some quick estimations, and on average, she would normally have about 14 Str by level 16, with her class path. She's a little slow right now, but that's nothing a few weeks of Speed Carrots can't fix.

And hey, she just got another point of Wt offset. 5 more Str and she'll be able to use an Iron Bow+ without an AS penalty.


These Cavaliers are very slow.


They also cannot take magic hits well.

Damn that Hit +20. Hilda's Hit would only be 61 without it. Mrgrgr...

You might be thinking "wait, Hilda can kill Felix on the next turn with a good chance of hitting."

Mediocre.

To the comment about Felix's status, I respond: Physic.



No more will we be pestered by that ballista.



...Okay, Blue Lions.

Ah, hell.

Ah, hell.

...Bah, whatever, I'm gonna continue on. This attempt's going pretty alright, and I don't care about losing an infantryperson.


Doubling with Thoron. It's beautiful.

Okay, Dorothea, you have enough Spd for now, please get some Mag.




Payback.


Leonie is 100% going to die this turn, so I decide to just weaken her with Dorothea.



And I let Marianne get the kill, for a good level.

Abby gets a mediocre level from healing Dorothea.

Ferdinand has a lot of evasion here, between Swordbreaker, the trees, and Confidence.



You fool, Raphael. Why did you provoke Dimitri?

How could the AI not see that coming?

lol


...Okay?







Ugh, the majority of our force is far away from the bottom-center skirmish. I'm getting a bit worried.





Later, Lorenz.

Caspar will bait out Claude. He's pretty safe on those forest tiles.

Yeah, pretty safe. Claude having a Longbow is nice for being able to counteratttack anything, but he also has bad accuracy and bad AS for a bow user because of it.


No real reason to use Shatter Slash there, admittedly.

Aside from demonstrating that Ferdinand can cause an enemy unit to suffer -6 Spd and -5 Def. That's some pretty major weakening.


Now Bernadetta is the ballista jerk.

Also, it occurs to me that Shatter Slash let Bernadetta kill Not-Felix. Neato.



Holy jesus that's a lot of Atk.



You're not gonna hit Ferdinand, just give up.



Claude, you...you really shoulda gotten in the forest tiles yourself.


Shit. At least most of the Golden Deer are downed by this point.




Killing 1-2 range enemies can be annoying.


Very safe. Not a bad idea at all.

Would also like to note that Abby has gotten her battalion up to level 3, after they started the battle at level 1 with no battalion EXP.


Fat lot of good those stat buffs did you.

Meh.

Now that is an excellent level.


No reason to not let Mercedes get a round of combat in.


Because Caspar would've one-rounded Claude anyway.








Well, that was pointless.

lol



For one final act of defiance, the last member of the Golden Deer decides to miss Edelgard.




Line it up...


And take the shot.


Told you Dedue cannot stand up to magic users at all.

This is just to keep Dimitri from one-rounding Dorothea.

Do not underestimate me, Professor, or you will fail.


I'm only using this gambit because I'm not underestimating you, Dimitri.



Ugh.


And then there were two: Dimitri, and Not-Mercedes.





Alright, let's wrap this up.


Goodbye, deluded prince.

Bad news on that front.

A few turns of moving people up later, and Ferdinand opens the chest at the bottom of the map.

...Oh boy.

Let's just end this.
♪ No music ♪


The Black Eagles!
Thank you for your hard work, everyone! I daresay that prize is as good as ours.


Boom.


♪ Words to Believe In ♪


Complete and utter defeat... I would hate to make an enemy of you two.
No need to get carried away with praise. I know you both feel we won by a paper-thin margin. And I won't deny it. If we were to fight again, there's no telling who would prevail.


They were nothing.


Professor?! Well, I suppose it's OK to let victory go to your head just this once.
In any case, I hope the day never comes when we have to put this experience to use.
Agreed. I would hate to know a future in which I'm forced to cross swords with you.
True. Although the Battle of the Eagle and Lion was originally named after a war between the Empire and the Kingdom.


I hope so.
How admirable, Teach! On that note, I have a proposition. When we get back to Garreg Mach, let's have a grand feast to break down the walls between our respective houses.


It would be a fine opportunity to get to know each other better. Count me in.


I'm looking forward to it.





♪ A Promise ♪



But...but everyone was acting so friendly! It was overwhelming...



I know, I know. We'd have been able to take them out all at once. I heard you. I'm going to bed now.


I wanted to sneak off with someone too...


I suppose I can settle for you just this once, Ferdie.


But with you leading us, I've gotten to experience what it's like to fight alongside everyone...
And I've realized...how happy it makes me, fighting under your command.
The emperor doesn't take orders from anyone. It's their duty to stand alone and lead the entire Empire.


Am I that someone?


I may be heir to the Imperial throne, but first and foremost, I'm your grateful student. That will never change, even when I fulfill my destiny and become the emperor. I told you long ago that I wished to enlist you in the service of the Empire. Well, I take it back.




It's because of you that I've had the courage to leave my room for a bit each day. I'm...I'm so grateful, Professor!
We were all just discussing how well you led us. Remarkable!
Your guidance is without parallel, Professor. I have had practicing of that phrase.
Your training's been top notch. Really!
Whatever would we do without you?
I have had the opportunity to experience much. Please allow me to offer you my gratitude once more, Professor.




I dunno about you, but that put a big smile on my face.
♪ Guardian of Starlight ♪


Comparing against their performance at the mock battle of the Great Tree Moon, the students have grown significantly. It is clear that this is a result of your guidance.
In appreciation of your efforts, and to show our high hopes for the future of your students, I award you with this. Please continue to instruct your students as a model teacher.
So! You've made good use of all my power after all. I would have been upset if you had failed at such an easy task!


However, next month your assignment will be to journey to Remire Village to investigate an abnormal occurrence there.


An abnormal occurrence?
I have yet to ascertain the details, but it would seem the villagers have been acting strangely. I have already dispatched the knights to verify the authenticity of this information. They should be back shortly. I suggest you begin by finding out what they have discovered.
I pray this is not a bad omen...
May the goddess protect you all.


Our reward for defeating more units during the Battle of the Eagle and Lion than the other houses is a Blessed Lance. It's an Iron Lance, but with 1 more Mt, effectiveness against Monsters, a half-Renewal effect, oh and it also has 14 Wt. It's...not great.

That's all for next time! Next month: ominous things.

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