Off-site Screenshot test poster

Welcome back! It's time for everyone's favorite Fire Emblem staple: The Desert!

Yes, all... six of them.

Let's hit the ground running here, as this chapter is even less fun without non-mounted magic units. This probably isn't an optimal setup at all - Kyle is coming along, despite being mounted, because I do need some other healing besides Saleh, and I'm sure as hell not taking Gerik off the bench at this point.

Remember wayyyyy back in update 3 when I said something to the effect of "it's a good thing these aren't bandits that can fly and attack villages?" Well, in addition to the gargoyle from chapter 9 disproving that, we now have a pegasus knight that can and will destroy this village turn 1 unless I have a way to stop it. Fortunately, I still have the Sleep staff, but I'll need to get lucky, or hope that the peg knight will find someone else to bother.

Second order of business: The Dragonshield from last chapter goes to Artur right away, because for as strong as he is, he's still effectively made of glass.

I start the chapter by realizing that, instead of Kyle bothering with putting the peg knight to sleep, I can just go for the nuclear option and have Lute take her out.

Moulder makes his triumphant(?) return from the bench to help out with the copious amount of mages surrounding everyone.

Neimi ends up stopping by the vendor while she waits for mages to come to her, where I find out that Divine is really bad! Given how bad Aura is, too, it's safe to say Shine is the best light magic, despite still only having 6 might.

Ross is helping, too.

This jerk right here is the first Siege Asshole of the run. Slightly stronger than the original Bolting, but at slightly less accuracy and almost 50% more weight, it's still something to watch out for.

That wouldn't be so bad on its own, but this is a Super Pupil, and one with Eirika's Death Blow, no less

Oh, excuse me, that was the other Siege Asshole.

Both that guy and this level can

I gave Neimi the Killer Lance because oh my god look at this crit rate

Saleh gets a level that's more in line with what I expected fighting another mage.

I find another target for Sleep because fuck Devil's Pact. Lute is at low health from a bunch of enemies swarming her, and the last thing I need is a stray Devil hit taking her out.

Any level that's more than just HP and strength is good for Ewan.

Ephraim! If only you had gotten here at the start of this turn, but it's good to have more units in the party. Let's just hope he brought good ones with him...

Duessel is a Wyvern Knight and Knoll is a Bard. Oh boy, a fourth lance-locked flyer!

Ephraim has been auto-leveled to 15, but is otherwise as we left him - a hypercompetent lance user, albeit with low HP.

Knoll is a level 10 bard with worse base HP than Ross, who joined the party at level 1. What else do I have to say?

...okay, I guess he has new skills. Forager restores 20% of his max HP each turn he is on a Plains, Forest, or Mountain tile, and Wind Disciple gives him +10 Hit and Avoid if he has less than max HP. Yes, these do basically cancel each other out.

4 speed. At level 8 promoted. With a 15% growth rate.

He has decent growths otherwise even if his bases aren't the greatest, buuuut the one item in his inventory is a Steel Lance, which weighs just enough to give Duessel an attack speed of zero.
It's not all bad, though. For skills, he has Spur Magic, making adjacent magic users deal 4 extra damage when fighting, Charm, giving all allies within 2 tiles of him an extra +2 damage, Counter, which fully reflects all physical damage he takes (at 1-2 range), and Rally Defense, a command that gives allies within 2 spaces +4 Defense for a turn. He's a support unit through and through... I'll just have to make sure he gets a weapon that doesn't totally kill his speed.

Yeah, I'll, uh, I'll do some good with this, alright.

Knoll's Bard sprite, for posterity.

First up in the hidden treasure lineup is another Dragonshield. This is... alright, but I think I'd have preferred another Swiftsole.

Ewan gets a decent level against a Shaman and learns Capture for himself.

Moulder is trying so hard to stay relevant.

You may have noticed it before, but Super Pupils also have Barricade+, which finally lets me give a simplified explanation on how it works. If the user is hit multiple times in a fight, the damage is halved on the last hit.

There are flying reinforcements coming from the top of the map, so Lute is going to be playing Pretend Boss and picking off enemies that get too close to the gate.

We're almost to Caellach already, so let's take a look at him. He's fairly imposing statistically... until you remember he doesn't move and is also a Sniper, which makes him almost pathetically easy. Even if, for whatever reason, I felt like giving him a fair fight, he has Bane and also Poison Strike, which would make doing so a colossally bad idea. He also has the personal skill Liquid Ooze, which makes it so that if someone were to drain HP from him (with, say, a Runesword), they would take damage instead of being healed.

But who cares about any of that when Neimi puts up numbers like this against him?

He's got a pretty neat palette, too!

It's damn good to have you back.

Buried Treasure #2 is another Speedwing!

This guy's a real merit to his team, attacking Ephraim with a Swordslayer.

Another enemy attacks him to give him... a level.

And boss #1 is down! Didn't even get a chance to attack.

Hey, I'll take it!

She also inadvertently grabs the S-rank sword out of the sand! What awesome power does it--

Ah. The same might as a fucking Steel Sword, with more than double the weight. Lovely.

Vanessa and Moulder have been dealing with a gaggle of pegasus knights, where Moulder continues to get bad levels.

The inspiring lineup of buried treasure continues.

The Myrmidons by Caellach attempt to avenge him. It doesn't end well.

Knoll gets taken out by a javelin, but you know what? I don't care enough to savescum to save him. I already have two Dancers, so...

Wow. A whole 1 gold. Fortunately, this was an enemy drop, not a replacement for hidden treasure.

This group of reinforcements shows up. They're not too threatening, but this Warrior could be.

Look at that, Axefaith on a class that can actually use it! ...except this guy only has a bow.

Duessel isn't going anywhere this turn, but I give him a dance just so I can see what his palette looks like. That's... kind of badass, actually.

Don't know what you thought would happen, my dude.

Then she murderizes a Priest for a meh level.

Dozla is still real bad, but he's all I have for thievery.

Flashy Mode or not, superfluous crits are a universal constant.

Ephraim pokes at the Warrior for a better level.

And Ewan keeps on Ewaning.

Lute also gets her first promoted level, getting just Luck and Resistance.

The treasure is getting better again. Something else that's new would be nice, though.

...Or Neimi could immediately pick up another Killing Edge, that works too.

And now, the last hurdle of the map... Valter and his detachment.

While this might be a good idea at first glance, Berserkers actually have Countermagic as a class skill, which is... pretty clever, actually.

Joshua smashes a Wight's face in with a hammer and maxes out on a pretty strong note! Now if only I had another master seal...

Vanessa takes a shot at the Berserker. She just might cap speed before promoting...

Said Berserker proves to not really be a threat, what with being stuck with a halberd and all that.

Somehow it didn't dawn on me that Audhulma was the hidden treasure that's supposed to be here, because I thought it was some kind of hidden reward for beating Caellach.

Duessel picks Dozla up and ferries him over to the other side of the map to grab what's left of the treasure.

Pro tip: Counter skills don't take effect if the unit with the skill dies during the fight.

Again with Swordslayers going for people with lances... At least this time it's not a Brigand, so there's no fear of Devil's Pact happening.

I decide to Capture this bard, the last unit on the map other than Valter, for no real reason other than "why not?" Also, with how top-heavy Ewan's growths are, I gladly welcome any stats on him that aren't HP or Strength.

Hey, this is pretty good!

It seems Fir is just The Sprite for all captured soldiers. Again, I couldn't tell you why it's her to save a life.

I'm one level away from not having to acknowledge Dancer Levels ever again... until I do this again with L'Arachel, of course.

The way items are randomized means I could get a Devil Axe in place of the real Solar Brace, so finding one here is very nice.

This, on the other hand, is worthless.

With all of that out of the way, it's finally time to take on Valter. He's a big blob of HP, and that high strength would be much more intimidating if he had a Fetid Claw instead of the Rotten one, which has a grand total of 3 might. However, Frenzy means I need to be careful with anyone taking him on at close range, and Barricade+ serves to draw this fight out even further as if he wasn't also on a fort with 77 HP.

Kyle gets around to healing up Dozla's wounds from earlier. With how much magic he has, I'm honestly tempted to just promote him after this chapter so he can start slinging spells around.