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12: Archer Emblem
So we've... taken out the Grado empire? For all the good that did us.
"Not as much danger as it could have been, don't ask about this map in solo runs."
Still going to kinda suck though? I think.
'cause desert.
Yeah i don't expect them to handle this too well on their own, they only have one archer! That is not nearly enough archer.
thank you seth please remind me again
anyway
this is a village
with an item
what i'm going to use right heckin' now!
In Gerik's case, the option we won't be taking is pretty good. Axes are nice,
but while handaxes are a great bonus, he's unlikely to get good enough at using them to pick up Garm, and the ranger gets better movement, so it's also quite attractive.
(Not as attractive as it is when your other option is sniper, though...)
Eirika's been boosted to level 10. I though it was supposed to be 15 for some reason?
Anyway she's kind of frail so she gets to go sit on the pyramid.
While the only person in this group who can fight handles the mercs.
Innes has a silver bow, which is nice, but fragile. Won't get another one for a while, either.
And Saleh has weapons, which he's going to trade with Eirika's so neither of them can cheat!
Need to start making our way north, but there's a lot of unpleasantness in the south too.
We finally have all our archers, though! That helps, and Tethys basically makes another archer.
At least i can counter archers.
Neimi's out of room to grow her strength so she gets started on her speed.
And now, let's do some ferrying!
Want to get as far as we can.
Meanwhile, Gerik will get started on this rowdy crowd.
I don't much care for this situation, to be honest. The 'serker won't move but the wyverns... will.
There, now we won't hurt them when they come for us 
Gerik's going to clean house on this map.
He takes a few hits here and there, but the fort's going to let him distract basically half the map. It's ridiculous and hilarious.
This meanwhile, is not hilarious.
At least Innes oneshots these.
And with dancing assistance, we're slowly making our way up with the others.
I don't know why i have Colm here, probably just forgot Rennac existed to be honest. He's kind of forgettable, even if he has good stats.
...which, let's be honest, he really doesn't, but they are still a whole lot bigger than Colm's at this point.
Ow.
Ow!
This is a dicey. We do have healing on this gang, though.
Gerik doesn't need healing.
There we go, Neimi delivered, and now we can start picking off those flying annoyances. The pyramid is actually impassable; they can't get in and attack Eirika without ranged weapons (which most of them don't have).
Gerik's doing fine.
And with this elixir, Saleh's doing fine too.
Say what you want about archers but casually doing 84 damage to an enemy is satisfying.
Neimi's not quite there yet. But one day...
Moulder is at least good for one thing - he's able take more hits than L'Arachel. Not a lot of hits, mind, but some.
Sooo slooooowwwwwww
Still cleaning house!
I've been trying to roll shortbow crits here. He actually gets some because there's going to be a lot of combat, but... the shortbow is still not very good.
THUNK.
Too many enemies to handle with two archers alone, so we'll have to remove Moulder from the area.
The axe guys aren't too bad, but the fliers are even worse than usual when we can't move worth crap.
(Not that they're very effective against Neimi, but then again what is?)
Enemies start packing in around Gerik. Anything that attacks at 2 range gets punished pretty hard, but anything that survives will start running to the healers to get fixed up, which is obnoxious. Hence the crit-fishing.
Cutting it a little close here!
They have physics. I am so mad.
oh fuck shit maybe i should be more mad about this fucking hell
Saleh needs to heal right now immediately.
Our warriors are almost there!
This'll be some trouble, but i think we can handle it.
I'm not sure why i went for the fighters first, but i probably had a plan.
Involving... leaving this peg to attack my dancer...?
And starting to draw the wyverns early, apparently.
Well as it turns out, these pegs are kind of trash and Tethys didn't have a problem standing up to one hit, even with a steel lance.
And this one just plain suicided. Why in the hell would you go for Innes at range when a nice squishy lord is sitting right within reach?!
Not even like you'd be able to kill him anyway!
Can't get close enough for regular bows but Garcia still has that longbow.
And Ross has arrived!
Uuuuhhh i forgot to stock Neimi with healing items shit. Innes has an elixir but can't reach her.
Well, nothing to do but take out as many enemies as possible and hope she dodges enough!
See this? First level gained on the map he promoted. Moulder? One of my first promotions, still awful.
Eeehhhhh
There.
Time to take out the trash.
Yes.
Went for someone with more HP.
Likewise.
And Neimi is safe!
...the last one hits her. But it doesn't do enough damage to kill by itself.
And now, it is time to die!
Still keeping clear of this guy for the moment.
All the pegs are gone, Neimi's getting healed,
and Gerik's still in no danger.
This is infuriating, though...
"SURPRISE, MOTHERFUCKER!"
...but i knew they were coming and they're all going to cluster up around Gerik and be entirely incapable of doing anything to him.
Now there's mages. They can move better than our infantry units, but at least they don't fly over obstacles so they're easier to deal with.
And then we can finally reunite these two.
Told ya.
Finally, with some time to spare, i baited the berserker with Neimi,
who, of course, killed him in return. This is bow money.
This is just fun to watch.
He's outclassing these guys so bad it's kind of sad.
And he's barely taking any damage! I don't think i've healed him manually a single time, it's all the fort.
He's determined to get even better. That's C bows, too.
While the warriors handle the mages, i'm going to start on Caellach's group with the snipers. They're mostly nothing.
B, for Bows.
Ooooh yeah, one of them does have a berserk staff... Sure, do feel free to berserk Gerik, he's got nothing but you guys to take it out on!
...well, it was only a 5% chance.
Whooole lotta guys, though.
It's trash, but valuable trash.
Speaking of trash,
Innes is now less so! I decided pretty quickly that i was going to give that to him. It might have been worth it to give it to L'Arachel though, because she could have used that extra magic if she's promoting early and never getting fight exp... Oh well.
Still got a few wyverns. Now might be a good time to start killing them.
Levels!
Headpatting degenerates!
Myrms are not terribly dangerous.
...fighters aren't either. The map objectives are really going to be way more troublesome than the individual enemies going forward, since we concentrate our exp into so few characters.
(And also because Sacred Stones, of course.)
That's the last one. I think it's +2% compared to previously because she got closer?
Thinning out the herd now, but there's still a lot.
It's not worth showing all those nobodies dying, but the Gerik level is funny because it's one of those "was at 99 exp, got smacked and learned something" ones.
Didn't learn very much, granted, but...
This isn't going to be a problem either. I don't expect the warriors will leave the wyverns on low enough health to run and get healed, unlike Gerik.
And indeed, they do not!
Only had one in range, though, so this one's going to get to do... something... next turn. Nothing useful, though.
Right, so Caellach. He's... kind of not very threatening?
Are you?
Neimi: 
You didn't impress me.
Nice toy, though!
That's most of the top-middle part done.
And A bows for Garcia.
Time for everyone who isn't Gerik to start heading down towards everyone who is Gerik.
...i completely forgot that was a thing, allow me to sum up my thoughts:
sadtrombone.aiff
This concludes my thoughts on the subject.
Theeere we go! Snipers have arrived!
And Garcia, too!
Most of what's left is just going to melt to our bow users, which is nice and hilarious.
Not going to accomplish much in the process, either!
Here's another "got smacked and learned something" level. A good one this time! He's not that far behind Neimi, honestly.
That's a paladin with a silver lance. Is this even hard mode?!
That was a very silly thing you did.
Now it's Garcia getting swarmed.
But not for long.
Oh, and now Ross is here, too. The tide of battle has turned solidly in our favour. And to think i was worried about this map!
I killed a whole heap of lizards.
This guy could theoretically hurt.
While we wait to see if he does, i'm going to drag Colm around and pick up all the treasure.
That, uh... would actually have been a kill if he crit, huh. Maybe i shouldn't be taking promoted units so lightly.
But with him gone,
we just
have to
collect
the
treasure. Neimi will get this, and she's going to love it.
This too, let's be honest.
There!
Oh, apparently Neimi wasn't at B with Garcia, i could have sworn she was, but she is now.
We are ALL counting on you, Neimi!
Right now, we're counting on you to kill Valter, because he deserves it.
Do you hunger for arrows?
I hope so, because it's all we have!
And Neimi is now even more reliable.
I think my fliers go splat if anything hits them at this point so this may not be very useful. Still going to keep it, though!
"Did you really come here without a single weapon on your person?!"
"Well see there's a funny story about that..."
We can't use these. Can't sell them either! What a bummer, but at least we're getting closer to Nidhogg.
Why does the s-rank bow have to be one of the last damn things in the entire game... 
Anyway, we got some stat boosters, and i didn't even spend the ones from last map so let's distribute them now before i forget again. I don't know if anyone's going to get a lot of levels at this point, but L'Arachel's awesome so she gets this, i am not sorry.
Wait, who are you? 
Money money money.
Neimi's behind on her res growth, but she's probably still my best res tank? So she gets this.
And this.
And this! Neimi is B U F F now, i make the rules and it's true.
You? You're a nerd, go read a book (actually it's because he has the lowest skill but i also like dunking on innes so shut up).
He's also the most fragile, so he gets the robe too. That should keep him until the end of the game!
And speaking of which, that's coming closer and closer... First off, though, we gotta get back home and throw out the squatters.
Oh no not Orson whatever will we do
set up in formation something like this maybe?? I remembered Rennac exists again so at least that's something.
Neimi up north, statstick in tow.
Rest to the east.
Nice.
These enemies will come for you even if you leave this area alone but right now i'm just cutting through them.
These, too. They're unpromoted, we're like 10 levels higher, yak yak same as always.
Mages can be slightly threatening but are rather squishy.
This guy's running for some reason. Nothing else up here moves until you get into the upper or lower sections, even the siege tome guys won't siege tome you as long as you stay in the corridor from the entrance.
We're all set to move into that next turn.
And Neimi's barely slowing down as she's storming the back door. This guy has a door key but i also have Colm so
Seriously...? That's a little pathetic, don't you think?
wait
i completely missed that!
Well it's not as if it's a big chance but heck!
Also file under "heck": thief spawning on the stairs, cavs by the starting area.
But we're in!
These aren't the enemies i'm worried about.
Not these ones either.
Monks just kind of suck, huh?
A little closer now, but still not an issue.
Let's get this guy (and his door key) out of the way.
The knights don't move, but the dark mages are coming for us.
L'Arachel grinded some staff exp thanks to that.
A little closer still to the berserk staff, but it should be fine, right?
Ross and Garcia will handle the reinforcements, they are horse units so they will be catching up to us eventually.
Nope, and that's one problem out of the way.
Some of the cavs are coming this way but first i want to get rid of this guy. Luna's no fun.
This will be long and boring, honestly. They can't do much to us, we can't kill more than one per character each round... Occasionally there'll be a javelin that lets us counter, but most of them are just going to clog up the hallway forever.
So since i'm impatient, i'm starting on these guys now.
Innes can't oneround, because he is a scrub.
I've had Duessel wall for Ephraim so often that they've managed to get a support rank. Sure, why not?
These guys are all pathetic, too. Still not the ones i'm worried about!
Aw, missed the G.
Now that we've gone down and engaged the mercs, the whole boss room is aggroing as well. Eclipse isn't really a threat. But, there are three of them...
Oh.
Well, you can just keep that to be honest.
Now we're starting to see some promoted people coming in!
These two are considerably more dangerous than the rest.
Because Purge.
Only one of them has it, though!
...the other one's got sleep. Yay.
Garcia.
It's a bit weird how this promoted enemy is slower than the mercs but i'm not complaining. Innes has S bows now!
And now he can... totally not use it for anything because we still don't have Nidhogg argh.
Thanks, Innes. Warrior had a hero crest but, you know.
This is going well enough, Moulder has healing and i can take this guy out next turn. The priest's harmless with his staff spent.
...uuuhhh that could be an issue though.
As can this holy shit ow! Ephraim can take it, just barely, and i have healing ready, but ow!
...and Garcia gets put to sleep.
I did say he can just barely take it! Also that is a swordmaster, hello 
But wait, this is more important!
Innes can take the rest of the mercs; Gerik gets started on this swarm of Holy Shit No. Duessel will help block. It might be doable?
Can't kill the swordmaster even with a danced turn, so this might sting.
I should have used Neimi to kill that cavalier. But i got hung up on the thief.
And then Moulder fucking died. Entirely my own fault, too.
SO INSTEAD.
The entire group is heading right now.
You'd seriously tink? Against a warrior?
Still gotta deal with these assholes.
But i think we're further along when the thief spawns this time? I mean not that i care, it's a tomahawk.
I know there's Purge coming so here's some barriering (and also it's worth exp).
Same thing as last round, warriors will handle the horses.
I wish i had a halberd...
Thanks, Moulder! I'm pretty sure L'Arachel is just better than you now, before her promotion gains...
I agree. Moulder needs to get his shit together.
See, Garcia? He knows what's up.
Still don't want to wait for him to wrap up the horses, though, so let's piss some people off.
Hit: 0.
I do not want to get berserked so this guy needs to go fast.
Not super fun odds but i like it a lot more than the Lunas.
More barriers!
Nailed it this time.
This is still not great, with the swordmasters and druids, but i like it more than i did last time.
That's Moulder with a barrier up. He is so bad.
That is a lot of damn damage!
Tethys is helping Gerik deal with the mercs again; that also keeps her out of purge range, for now.
Neimi has crit immunity (and decent luck without it) so the swordmasters don't bother her that much.
Luna is so fucking scary on a druid!
But in the end, pure water didn't save Colm so that's another run down the drain
SO INSTEAD.
We're doing the same thing, but differently.
I'm doing my best ok!!!
Good level. You are definitely better than Moulder.
That purge is really a big problem. And i don't have a good way to deal with it, except
fappo. (L'Arachel's still better than you.
Luna druid's the most threatening out of the three, so he goes first.
Eclipse is harmless.
But you!!
Also Saleh is here this time, hi Saleh.
Gerik's still fighting the mercs.
Nice.
Nice!
uhh
except i realized i forgot to top up Neimi's healing items.
Again.
I had many screenshots leading up to this but you all knew it was coming so let's move on to the next attempt.
This time with items!
Get some barrier!
And now, we warp again. Moulder got a level, i missed it, here are his stats, they're still bad.
(This is a savestate from before the warp because i knew nothing was going to change up until that point anyway, except maybe for the levels we got and they aren't really important (gasp!) in the long run.
Killed the luna druid again.
Tethys levels.
Neimi takes a hit.
But she kills the sage.
Garcia's level is bad this time.
Sleep staff guy tried to sleep Saleh for some reason?? It didn't work.
Neimi grabs a pillar and heals, we should be ok now.
This is ok!
...this is not, ugh, that asshole again... He missed, but Gerik is a lot less dodgy against that.
The sleep staff guy managed to hit Saleh.
Innes killed a man.
And L'Arachel took Moulder's restore staff
and woke up Saleh.
The horses are running out. Ross got an even worse level than Garcia.
I'm okay with that if it means we can leave.
Neimi's doing well so far.
Gerik... is not doing well.
But we have healers.
And can just do this.
And then this 
The sleep sage is out of sleep, so now we just bait and kill him.
If Neimi eats two hits, she dies. But, 26 displayed hit...
Nah, it's fine.
The swordmaster missed, too.
Innes killed the sage!
The thief is looping around to get to the other chests, i guess. He has too much speed for us to steal his lockpicks, Rennac is two points short.
With Saleh on healing support, this is easy.
Even gets some stats out of it!
That is, finally, the last horse!
Oh! I did have a feeling someone like this was going to show up, but...
nah, you're not getting my chests.
Wow. Dunking on Innes has clearly inspired him to get good.
We kill the thief and take the tomahawk so we can buy more bows and/or healing.
With this, there's only one enemy left who can put up a fight!
I mean there's a merc left but they don't do any damage.
That's everything but the priests, and the boss.
One of them has a physic and it will be so useful.
Healing!
Killing!
Dancing!
Yeah, L'Arachel is just plain Better Than Moulder now, we don't even have the S rank staff yet and technically being able to use it is not a point in his favour.
Got some dough, though!
Saleh is catching up. His staff rank starts at like... C? D? I don't remember, but it's decent now.
One last stationary knight.
It's... another 5k, let's be honest.
And this is going on Neimi, because i say so.
Also this was the moment when i went like... "Hold on. That's levels in the double digits!"
L'Arachel!
She has two options, they are identical for our purposes except Valkyrie gets one more point of res.
So obviously that's what we're going with.
Then there's only Orson left
and i was like "wait..."
and then i realized he has a fucking runesword, ugh. Anyway, he's not a threat, Innes kills him, i somehow don't have the images for that either, it's obnoxious but it should be the last instance of missing images and also the map was over so i don't really care (actually i'm mad as hell). We promoted Eirika and Ephraim because there is Literally One Reason to not do so and it's bad (more on this later), we got some more weapons we can't use, and that's the chapter. Next up... wait, are you saying it gets even worse?? I want to see my lawyer.