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London 2012 Summer Olympics |OT|
- Thread starter giga
- Start date
- Status
Oo getting excited! I've been working in Stratford for the last 4 weeks and finished yesterday. Seeing all the preparation has got me really looking forward to the Olympics.
Off to Vue to watch the ceremony in 4K HD. Shame I have plenty of pessimists and naysayers on Facebook but totally ignored.
Off to Vue to watch the ceremony in 4K HD. Shame I have plenty of pessimists and naysayers on Facebook but totally ignored.
Ah right, fair enough.
Also I must admit but I really can't wait for the Opening Ceremony, it should be awesome!
Is that just in the Olympic Village?
Napoleonthechimp
Member
It really annoys me that I'm missing out on this Olympic experience because of a complete lack of money. This is going to spur me on to getting out of this shitty financial rut that I've been in for my entire life.
Apparently.
~Devil Trigger~
In favor of setting Muslim women on fire
QuicheFontaine
Member
<titter>
To be perfectly honest it was down to NBC and ESPN on the Olympic games. (ABC owns ESPN)
Apperently ESPNs coverage was going to be like BBCs in which they have would have a few extra channels and show everything live no
Matter what time.
Unfortunately NBC outbid them by a few..Billion dollars. Maybe in 2020 ESPN can get it (even though I would want other commentators then the ones currently at ESPN).
Apperently ESPNs coverage was going to be like BBCs in which they have would have a few extra channels and show everything live no
Matter what time.
Unfortunately NBC outbid them by a few..Billion dollars. Maybe in 2020 ESPN can get it (even though I would want other commentators then the ones currently at ESPN).
I saw that too, not sure what's going on.
ConfusingJazz
Member
And now people know why I wanted ESPN to get the contract rather then NBC. Well, one of two reasons. The other reason is the fucking sob story NBC does for every sport. If you don't have a sob story, they won't broadcast you.
NBC is doing this.
No what I mean is show it live no matter what time is that it includes both opening and closing ceremonies, and I think they mentioned getting rid of the tape-delay
Plus, ESPN has an app on the Xbox so that would of been nice to have.
LegendofJoe
Member
I would do terrible things for the opportunity to be in London during the next few weeks. With the exception of two layovers at Heathrow I've never been to the UK. 
If any gaffers are there I hope you have a great time.
If any gaffers are there I hope you have a great time.Chapter 9 (right?). We finally have pushed Trabant to a point where he will have to answer for two decades of crimes. Altenna reluctantly leads a charge against the liberation force, Hannibal is forced into action through blackmail, and the Sect also has a presence in the area. Feels like this is the going to be one last (big) bump before we head on the road back into Grandbell to confront Alvis/Manfloy and things really come to a head.
Surveying the map, I notice six (!) villages in the upper left being attacked by a guy. These are the only villages on the map, Femina heads there right away. I'm hoping she can avoid fighting with the 3 units in front playing defense and focus purely on saving the villages. She just needs to kill the one guy. Luckily, the map ends up being designed in a way where this is the case. Hannibal and some other knight guard the first keep on the map. Wyverns are coming from the south. I initially guess based on the dialogue that Hannibal's units won't move unless attacked. Unfortunately that guess was apparently wrong!
Altenna's coming from the south, I'm placing units in tree cover in preparation. We are reminded of Corple's status: he is being held hostage over at the far keep, and we'll have to worry about that later. I was initially not expecting to have to stage a fight on two sides here, but with Altenna on the right and Hannibal on the left, that ends up being exactly what I have to do. Luckily I'm at a point where I feel like I have more powerful units and fewer liabilities, so i only have to worry that units like Patty and TInny, and maybe Arthur are out of harm's way.
The goal: get Leif over to Altenna. I have a dancer and some ranged attackers and a few chances to get him over there before she can kill anyone with the Gae Bolg. With a fair number of magic units at the ready, I'm able to thin out the wyverns...except Leif still can't get to Altenna. He can't climb up that far. I apparently needed to wait for them to have moved one turn closer. Luckily, I think that most of my units are getting some sort of terrain evasion boost, so basically I just have to hope she misses. On the western front, some of my stronger promoted units like Lakche and Johan quickly learned that these knights are actually pretty tough..
..since they have brave weapons! Normally I'm pretty good at checking that sort of thing but I forgot to this time. I didn't even release that Hannibal himself was on the field. I focus on moving many of my units back so they get as few chances to hit me as possible, only Arthur and Lakche are still somewhat exposed. Luckily since Hawk is also a healer now, I'm able to make sure I prioritize keeping people healthy like I always do. I like healers. So even through I initially split my force, it seems they are more or less balled up again.
Lakche is possibly my best unit. She dodge's most of the time, whenever she does take damage, she's typically able to heal herself with sol. If this game keeps track of how many kills a unit has, she'll probably be near the top. I think the fortune teller might do that, but I'd like to see it at the end. Altenna with Gae Bolg doesn't actually hit as hard as I anticipate, but Serlis I believe dodged the blow anyways. Lucky duck. So I'm able to finally get Leif and Altenna to meet! He's not quite able to convince her to switch sides, surprisingly. So she flees back to the keep, and I still have to deal with the remaining wyverns that did not despawn. Lame! But these wyverns are as tough as the brave lance-wielding armored knights.
She blew it! Altenna was given one chance and blew it! Trabant has had it with her and takes to the battlefield himself. Finally. Arion supposedly slays Altenna right then and there, but I can't imagine she's actually dead. All of the wyverns up top are dead and only a few more of the knights to go.
So far, Femina has been able to avoid encounters on the way to the villages up top. ALSO, it seems there is a safe spot to the west of the axeman attacking the villages, which means that she will be able to save all of them as long as she can kill the guy fast enough, which shouldn't be a problem. I'm not quite sure what Hannibal means here, he was already attacking and just decides that he's going to keep doing that. Trabant himself actually doesn't seem so tough. No ranged attacks and nothing really extraordinary in any respect. The Power ring is a nice thing to drop, though.
Ichival really is a boss killer. Hannibal goes down, Serlis and co wrap up before the next wave of wyverns get there. Trabant's in a similar position that Altenna and her knights were in when I wiped them out. The only difference is that I don't have to worry about keeping him alive. He might actually be not as tough a unit, either, since he only has a silver lance and not the Gae Bolg.
I get another Ichival kill on a boss. Actually, not quite, the wyvern is a tanky little fella. Lakche gets to use her Thunder sword for once, normally she only has to use Brave or Silver so Thunder doesn't normally see a lot of action. With that she now has the Power and Leg rings, damn. Best unit. I could probably give up the thief ring, she doesn't really need that.
Shocking news, Altenna ain't dead. However, Arion seems loyal to his (late) father's wishes and declares that no matter what, the two of them will be enemies the next time they meet. That's unfortunate, hopefully it can be avoided. I doubt the game will give me two wyvern riders back to back, so I imagine he will have to die. Maybe I can make him retreat or something. Some of Trabant's remaining wyverns decide to attack Hawk even though they can't possible hit him. Seriously, I think two or three of them did that. Numbskulls. Altenna works her way back north by herself. I don't believe I have to worry about her attacking anyone anymore.
Femina finally finished off that axe-guy. I'm going to wait until Altenna switches sides in order to have the two of them gang up on the rest of the units up there. Surprisingly, she approaches Serlis instead of Leif. Anyways, she joins up, as expected. She implores that we don't fight Arion but I'm not sure we have much of a choice. Well, he's not approaching us at the moment, I'll see if Altenna or Serlis can talk to him later. She immediate heads over to those villages, her first job in her new role. She's actually not quite as much of and instant-great unit like I thought she might be. Doles out more damage than Femina though. I think the pair of them are going to see a lot of action.
What. A Shanan look alike decides to hit on Femina at the first village. How very...random. Anyways, Femina calls him out on his shit and he gives her a defense boost instead. I also get a Barrier ring from one of the villages. We also get reminded of Arion's good nature, and Femina is also able to become a Falcon knight!
Repeat pic. Femina's new look and new duds after that excursion to the villages. Not too shabby. Faval and Patty have a sibling bonding moment of sorts, but nothing really seems to come out of it. I think one of them got some Luck boost, maybe. I'm also able to get Altenna to level 20 to promote to Wyvern Lord. Two more promoted units, and both can fly! Awww yeah. I also give Femina a heal staff since I can never have too many healers!
Surveying the map, I notice six (!) villages in the upper left being attacked by a guy. These are the only villages on the map, Femina heads there right away. I'm hoping she can avoid fighting with the 3 units in front playing defense and focus purely on saving the villages. She just needs to kill the one guy. Luckily, the map ends up being designed in a way where this is the case. Hannibal and some other knight guard the first keep on the map. Wyverns are coming from the south. I initially guess based on the dialogue that Hannibal's units won't move unless attacked. Unfortunately that guess was apparently wrong!
Altenna's coming from the south, I'm placing units in tree cover in preparation. We are reminded of Corple's status: he is being held hostage over at the far keep, and we'll have to worry about that later. I was initially not expecting to have to stage a fight on two sides here, but with Altenna on the right and Hannibal on the left, that ends up being exactly what I have to do. Luckily I'm at a point where I feel like I have more powerful units and fewer liabilities, so i only have to worry that units like Patty and TInny, and maybe Arthur are out of harm's way.
The goal: get Leif over to Altenna. I have a dancer and some ranged attackers and a few chances to get him over there before she can kill anyone with the Gae Bolg. With a fair number of magic units at the ready, I'm able to thin out the wyverns...except Leif still can't get to Altenna. He can't climb up that far. I apparently needed to wait for them to have moved one turn closer. Luckily, I think that most of my units are getting some sort of terrain evasion boost, so basically I just have to hope she misses. On the western front, some of my stronger promoted units like Lakche and Johan quickly learned that these knights are actually pretty tough..
..since they have brave weapons! Normally I'm pretty good at checking that sort of thing but I forgot to this time. I didn't even release that Hannibal himself was on the field. I focus on moving many of my units back so they get as few chances to hit me as possible, only Arthur and Lakche are still somewhat exposed. Luckily since Hawk is also a healer now, I'm able to make sure I prioritize keeping people healthy like I always do. I like healers. So even through I initially split my force, it seems they are more or less balled up again.
Lakche is possibly my best unit. She dodge's most of the time, whenever she does take damage, she's typically able to heal herself with sol. If this game keeps track of how many kills a unit has, she'll probably be near the top. I think the fortune teller might do that, but I'd like to see it at the end. Altenna with Gae Bolg doesn't actually hit as hard as I anticipate, but Serlis I believe dodged the blow anyways. Lucky duck. So I'm able to finally get Leif and Altenna to meet! He's not quite able to convince her to switch sides, surprisingly. So she flees back to the keep, and I still have to deal with the remaining wyverns that did not despawn. Lame! But these wyverns are as tough as the brave lance-wielding armored knights.
She blew it! Altenna was given one chance and blew it! Trabant has had it with her and takes to the battlefield himself. Finally. Arion supposedly slays Altenna right then and there, but I can't imagine she's actually dead. All of the wyverns up top are dead and only a few more of the knights to go.
So far, Femina has been able to avoid encounters on the way to the villages up top. ALSO, it seems there is a safe spot to the west of the axeman attacking the villages, which means that she will be able to save all of them as long as she can kill the guy fast enough, which shouldn't be a problem. I'm not quite sure what Hannibal means here, he was already attacking and just decides that he's going to keep doing that. Trabant himself actually doesn't seem so tough. No ranged attacks and nothing really extraordinary in any respect. The Power ring is a nice thing to drop, though.
Ichival really is a boss killer. Hannibal goes down, Serlis and co wrap up before the next wave of wyverns get there. Trabant's in a similar position that Altenna and her knights were in when I wiped them out. The only difference is that I don't have to worry about keeping him alive. He might actually be not as tough a unit, either, since he only has a silver lance and not the Gae Bolg.
I get another Ichival kill on a boss. Actually, not quite, the wyvern is a tanky little fella. Lakche gets to use her Thunder sword for once, normally she only has to use Brave or Silver so Thunder doesn't normally see a lot of action. With that she now has the Power and Leg rings, damn. Best unit. I could probably give up the thief ring, she doesn't really need that.
Shocking news, Altenna ain't dead. However, Arion seems loyal to his (late) father's wishes and declares that no matter what, the two of them will be enemies the next time they meet. That's unfortunate, hopefully it can be avoided. I doubt the game will give me two wyvern riders back to back, so I imagine he will have to die. Maybe I can make him retreat or something. Some of Trabant's remaining wyverns decide to attack Hawk even though they can't possible hit him. Seriously, I think two or three of them did that. Numbskulls. Altenna works her way back north by herself. I don't believe I have to worry about her attacking anyone anymore.
Femina finally finished off that axe-guy. I'm going to wait until Altenna switches sides in order to have the two of them gang up on the rest of the units up there. Surprisingly, she approaches Serlis instead of Leif. Anyways, she joins up, as expected. She implores that we don't fight Arion but I'm not sure we have much of a choice. Well, he's not approaching us at the moment, I'll see if Altenna or Serlis can talk to him later. She immediate heads over to those villages, her first job in her new role. She's actually not quite as much of and instant-great unit like I thought she might be. Doles out more damage than Femina though. I think the pair of them are going to see a lot of action.
What. A Shanan look alike decides to hit on Femina at the first village. How very...random. Anyways, Femina calls him out on his shit and he gives her a defense boost instead. I also get a Barrier ring from one of the villages. We also get reminded of Arion's good nature, and Femina is also able to become a Falcon knight!
Repeat pic. Femina's new look and new duds after that excursion to the villages. Not too shabby. Faval and Patty have a sibling bonding moment of sorts, but nothing really seems to come out of it. I think one of them got some Luck boost, maybe. I'm also able to get Altenna to level 20 to promote to Wyvern Lord. Two more promoted units, and both can fly! Awww yeah. I also give Femina a heal staff since I can never have too many healers!
Alright, finishing up chapter...8 I think. The back half was actually a lot easier than the first. I guess wyverns are all bark and no bite. Being able to focus fire with nearly my entire group certainly helps. Having one of the enemy commanders chicken out of the fight is also some help. We finally get Hawk on our side, but what about this mysterious wyvern rider..
Serlis and Levin note that most of the regular folk here in Manster did not really hold much loyalty to Blume, and see Serlis and the liberation force as some sort of saviors. It seems like a silly thing to note, but actually puts some contrast into the start of the next chapter, where this is seemingly no longer the case. We are introduced to Altenna (and reintroduced to Arion, so I guess I pretty much remembered his name), Trabant's children. However, thanks to my notes, I remember that Altenna was the name of Cuan's daughter that was taken from him during the ambush. If I was playing normally, I could have easily forgotten. So she is Leif's sister. While the game doesn't hint at much now about her, it makes it very clear later.
Hawk finally finds himself having to take up arms...or books since he's an academic. A bunch of npcs flee Manster in fear of the approaching wyverns. It's the second time I see this. Free exp! There seems to be plenty of time to get to them. I have some weaker units that I want to try to promote soon so I will gladly take a free level up or two from rescuing these guys. There seems to be three clusters of Wyverns all heading north, as well as some ballistae. Luckily, none of the wyverns seem to be interested in any of the other, unoccupied, keeps, which is good.
There is a small dead end on the east with a few villages to save. I send Lakche and Femina over here since they can get there quickly. Hanna and Aless talk it out, learn that they are cousins, and Aless finally accepts that Sigurd was not his father's enemy. One of them got a few stat ups, I forget which. I glance over at Altenna's gear and can see that she has all of Cuan's old stuff plus the Gae Bolg. Well that will be something to watch out for. I anticipate that Leif will have to use Leen's help to get in range and recruit his sister, similar to how I had to deal with Faval earlier.
The nearby village spells out what could have been forgotten if you have a bad memory like me. I place my promoted units Johan and Nanna out in front to take on the first wave of attacks from the wyverns, as well as Aless with Mistolin, who I assume will also be fine. The attackers take the bait hook line and sinker. I have lots of magic and other units (like the Ichival-wielding archer) in back ready to wreck these guys. This battle actually goes pretty easily, overall.
Why does the Earth Sword only have ten uses. Whyyy. Anyways, Altenna basically tells generic-general-guy that she doesn't want any part in attacking the innocents of Manster. Well, that's good for me, since she's probably about twice as strong as he is and the rest of the reds put together. She decides to perch on a nearby mountain and pout. I try to get exp to my unpromoted units...which at this point it pretty much anyone that isn't a healer, haha. I figure Aless with Mistolin is already really good, so a promotion for him would be very useful.
A few more enemies than I anticipate end up on the right side of the keep, but I'm got my dancer nearby and plenty of people around to thin the guys out. I just need to make sure Tinny is out of harm's way. Everyone else is capable of going toe to toe with a wyvern or two. I'm able to gang up a few units on the general and clear him pretty easily. I forget if he dropped anything, I don't think so.
I'm able to heal everyone up, some of my healers are already approaching max level, but none are there quite yet. Serlis introduces himself to Hawk, who gladly hops on board. Hey, he can wield a staff too
. One more generic bossguy is mad that Altenna has seemingly abandoned them, so I've got one more corps of wyvern knights to deal with.
Femina and Lakche finish up on the east end. Lakche gets a Thief bracelet from the village. She does well enough in the arenas and saving villages herself that she doesn't really need it, so maybe she'll pawn that off....or Give to someone else once she finds a partner. Hmm. Femina and Hawk talk, apparently he is that missing brother of hers...I guess (they look nothing alike). She mentions Fury in the dialogue, kind of surprisingly. So these are the two replacements I'm stuck with, huh? Neither actually seems so bad, to be honest. Though they are limited in which weapons they can use, which I suppose is the biggest limitation. My two myrmidons, Scakighbaskj and Lakche, as well as Aless, are all pretty close to level 20, so I have them clear out the ballistae for easy exp. They also have plenty of defense and evasion to not really have to worry about dying to them.
Eventually, all that's left is the keep boss. Maikov I guess is his name. He's not as tough as some of the other bosses where I've had to bring in Balmung, so I give Aless the exp; Mistolin is nearly as good. He drops a Killer Bow, which I guess will go to Faval since no one else can even use that. All that's left is Altenna, crying on the mountain. I move Leif as close as possible, but nothing happens. I can't even fly Femina over to her.
....Except, that wasn't Leif, it was Serlis. Their map sprites look similar, okay!? Leif comments about the female wyvern rider....but that's it, just a comment. I wonder if that's all that can trigger at this point. Leif marches to the other side to double check. Still nothing. Continuing to flush that tactics rank, I am. I give up and seize the last keep. So apparently that was the easy half of the split countries, now for Act 2.
The game confirms that Trabant is allied with Alvis. It makes sense, but I was thinking maybe it wasn't true, but it is. We are introduced or re-introduced to a bunch of people. Seems like we will finally see Arion on the battlefield, as well as engaging Altenna, and 3 other generic guys no one probably remembers. Neither Arion nor Altenna seem to trust Trabant that much, but neither dares go against their father's wishes either. An ultimatum is basically given to Altenna; this is her last chance.
However, maybe the bearded general Hannibal isn't as unimportant as he initially might seem. I don't think he's a reskin, which is a hint, and he has an (adopted) son named Corple, who looks important. Trabant holds onto Corple in order to get Hannibal to do what the King wants. So Hannibal is a reluctant foe on this map, as Corple needs to be rescued from Trabant's clutches. Disgusting. Maybe that is a fight that can be avoided? Likely not. The other two generals are clearly evil and will eventually die. Fin and Leif talk about the mysterious wyvern knight...and Fin is pretty much spelling everything out as we know it. What a smart cookie.
After a few arena rounds, Scablahblah promotes to Hero, Lakche to Swordmaster, and Aless to Paladin. A few other people are getting close. I feel like I'm going to want to get Serlis and maybe Leif caught up, levels-wise. I'm able to get the Paragon ring over to Femina since she is very useful as well. Tinny is going to get left behind. Just like her mother.
Lastly, apparently Serlis has fallen for Lana. Huh. Interesting choice. Probably a consequence of them both entering the game at the same time and me wasting a lot of turns. Well, she seems like a classy lady.
Serlis and Levin note that most of the regular folk here in Manster did not really hold much loyalty to Blume, and see Serlis and the liberation force as some sort of saviors. It seems like a silly thing to note, but actually puts some contrast into the start of the next chapter, where this is seemingly no longer the case. We are introduced to Altenna (and reintroduced to Arion, so I guess I pretty much remembered his name), Trabant's children. However, thanks to my notes, I remember that Altenna was the name of Cuan's daughter that was taken from him during the ambush. If I was playing normally, I could have easily forgotten. So she is Leif's sister. While the game doesn't hint at much now about her, it makes it very clear later.
Hawk finally finds himself having to take up arms...or books since he's an academic. A bunch of npcs flee Manster in fear of the approaching wyverns. It's the second time I see this. Free exp! There seems to be plenty of time to get to them. I have some weaker units that I want to try to promote soon so I will gladly take a free level up or two from rescuing these guys. There seems to be three clusters of Wyverns all heading north, as well as some ballistae. Luckily, none of the wyverns seem to be interested in any of the other, unoccupied, keeps, which is good.
There is a small dead end on the east with a few villages to save. I send Lakche and Femina over here since they can get there quickly. Hanna and Aless talk it out, learn that they are cousins, and Aless finally accepts that Sigurd was not his father's enemy. One of them got a few stat ups, I forget which. I glance over at Altenna's gear and can see that she has all of Cuan's old stuff plus the Gae Bolg. Well that will be something to watch out for. I anticipate that Leif will have to use Leen's help to get in range and recruit his sister, similar to how I had to deal with Faval earlier.
The nearby village spells out what could have been forgotten if you have a bad memory like me. I place my promoted units Johan and Nanna out in front to take on the first wave of attacks from the wyverns, as well as Aless with Mistolin, who I assume will also be fine. The attackers take the bait hook line and sinker. I have lots of magic and other units (like the Ichival-wielding archer) in back ready to wreck these guys. This battle actually goes pretty easily, overall.
Why does the Earth Sword only have ten uses. Whyyy. Anyways, Altenna basically tells generic-general-guy that she doesn't want any part in attacking the innocents of Manster. Well, that's good for me, since she's probably about twice as strong as he is and the rest of the reds put together. She decides to perch on a nearby mountain and pout. I try to get exp to my unpromoted units...which at this point it pretty much anyone that isn't a healer, haha. I figure Aless with Mistolin is already really good, so a promotion for him would be very useful.
A few more enemies than I anticipate end up on the right side of the keep, but I'm got my dancer nearby and plenty of people around to thin the guys out. I just need to make sure Tinny is out of harm's way. Everyone else is capable of going toe to toe with a wyvern or two. I'm able to gang up a few units on the general and clear him pretty easily. I forget if he dropped anything, I don't think so.
I'm able to heal everyone up, some of my healers are already approaching max level, but none are there quite yet. Serlis introduces himself to Hawk, who gladly hops on board. Hey, he can wield a staff too
. One more generic bossguy is mad that Altenna has seemingly abandoned them, so I've got one more corps of wyvern knights to deal with.
Femina and Lakche finish up on the east end. Lakche gets a Thief bracelet from the village. She does well enough in the arenas and saving villages herself that she doesn't really need it, so maybe she'll pawn that off....or Give to someone else once she finds a partner. Hmm. Femina and Hawk talk, apparently he is that missing brother of hers...I guess (they look nothing alike). She mentions Fury in the dialogue, kind of surprisingly. So these are the two replacements I'm stuck with, huh? Neither actually seems so bad, to be honest. Though they are limited in which weapons they can use, which I suppose is the biggest limitation. My two myrmidons, Scakighbaskj and Lakche, as well as Aless, are all pretty close to level 20, so I have them clear out the ballistae for easy exp. They also have plenty of defense and evasion to not really have to worry about dying to them.
Eventually, all that's left is the keep boss. Maikov I guess is his name. He's not as tough as some of the other bosses where I've had to bring in Balmung, so I give Aless the exp; Mistolin is nearly as good. He drops a Killer Bow, which I guess will go to Faval since no one else can even use that. All that's left is Altenna, crying on the mountain. I move Leif as close as possible, but nothing happens. I can't even fly Femina over to her.
....Except, that wasn't Leif, it was Serlis. Their map sprites look similar, okay!? Leif comments about the female wyvern rider....but that's it, just a comment. I wonder if that's all that can trigger at this point. Leif marches to the other side to double check. Still nothing. Continuing to flush that tactics rank, I am. I give up and seize the last keep. So apparently that was the easy half of the split countries, now for Act 2.
The game confirms that Trabant is allied with Alvis. It makes sense, but I was thinking maybe it wasn't true, but it is. We are introduced or re-introduced to a bunch of people. Seems like we will finally see Arion on the battlefield, as well as engaging Altenna, and 3 other generic guys no one probably remembers. Neither Arion nor Altenna seem to trust Trabant that much, but neither dares go against their father's wishes either. An ultimatum is basically given to Altenna; this is her last chance.
However, maybe the bearded general Hannibal isn't as unimportant as he initially might seem. I don't think he's a reskin, which is a hint, and he has an (adopted) son named Corple, who looks important. Trabant holds onto Corple in order to get Hannibal to do what the King wants. So Hannibal is a reluctant foe on this map, as Corple needs to be rescued from Trabant's clutches. Disgusting. Maybe that is a fight that can be avoided? Likely not. The other two generals are clearly evil and will eventually die. Fin and Leif talk about the mysterious wyvern knight...and Fin is pretty much spelling everything out as we know it. What a smart cookie.
After a few arena rounds, Scablahblah promotes to Hero, Lakche to Swordmaster, and Aless to Paladin. A few other people are getting close. I feel like I'm going to want to get Serlis and maybe Leif caught up, levels-wise. I'm able to get the Paragon ring over to Femina since she is very useful as well. Tinny is going to get left behind. Just like her mother.
Lastly, apparently Serlis has fallen for Lana. Huh. Interesting choice. Probably a consequence of them both entering the game at the same time and me wasting a lot of turns. Well, she seems like a classy lady.
NBC is streaming every event live on their website and on their mobile apps. Many events are also aired live on TV. The only thing you can't see live are the opening and closing ceremonies, but who really cares? It's not like there are results there that can get spoiled. As long as the sporting events can be viewed live, if one wishes to do so, I don't see what there is to complain about.
For the record, I did some Googling and I couldn't find any reports stating that ESPN would have aired the opening and closing ceremonies live.
The 24 Olympic channels (450-473 HD or 474-497 SD on sky)
SunhiLegend
Member
nvm, already answered.
Okay well than I was wrong.
I'm tired of NBC tape delaying all of the "big" events and withholding everything. I am in the field that it shouldn't be tape delayed at all, replayed is fine, but withholding everything so you can make more money is stupid. IMO.
So Lenster and Thracia find themselves at odds, Blume is trying to hold onto what little sovereignty he has left while Trabant seems like he's about to make a move for more power. I'm still unsure if what he is doing is in line with Alvis/Manfloy's plans or not. Going through the pictures here, it seems like the first part of Chapter ...8 right? Well, it seems like a gauntlet of mini boss battles. Lots of tough fights ahead.
[QUOTE][IMG]http://i.imgur.com/6Ye6JoJl.jpg
[/QUOTE]
So the Lenster peeps automatically head out to defend Lenster keep; meanwhile Arthur and Femina seem to be getting a little friendly. Each unit on the menu screen still has a "Lover" blank, but nothing filled in yet so I assume I just need to play further. Anyways, not a lot more to say to start out..
Julia and Serlis talk. I believe she said something along the lines of that we should not fight Ishtar, due to some premonition that she seems to have. Huh. Anyways, I will keep that in mind. Meanwhile, Beavis and Butthead decide to attack Lenster and Alster, respectively. Great. I figure that Femina and Lakche can get to Lenster quick enough to help those folks out. I later reason that I could have just warped a few people. Oh well, worked out in the end. Guess I don't typically expect to start with two keeps. The southern group is a variety of soldiers and mages, while the northern ones are nearly entirely javelin wielding cavaliers or whatever.
The ugly stepsisters are also back, and also head towards Lenster. For some reason they kind of slipped in under my radar and I didn't think to send any more help that way. Oops. Guess the 4/5 units that are already there will have to deal with them. While the sisters are each somewhat dangerous, out of all these various foes, Muhammad seems like the most capable, with two Brave weapons. Lakche meets up with Leif's group pretty quickly. I decide to have her Guard the keep. Her evasion and skills and general awesomeness will hopefully shine there.
So I ball up most of my units and wait for the first push, as I always do. Using the forest for cover because why not. Meanwhile, Blume sends out a person named Faval. Looks like a recruitable unit to me (that fact gets confirmed really quickly, within the same conversation.) Alongside the pending battles outside the two keeps, I start sending Femina around to saving some villages. So far she's been about equally as capable as Fury when it comes to that role.
During his conversation with Blume, Faval mentions Patty by name. Well the game certainly made that easy for me, huh? He also has the Ichival. What. Well I guess this little conversation quickly revealed who Brigid's children were. Aless and Tinny (of all people) go for the 1-2 on Muhammad, while the rest of that ball of units (along with Leen's help) wipe out the soldiers and mages pretty easily. Though there are a lot of them. Off screen, Lakche is pretty easily dodging Javelins and taking out a good chunk of the knights while the Lenster trio help out and also prepare for the 3 mage minibosses. Lakche sitting in a Keep and also being able to heal and astra keep her alive pretty easily. I also learn somewhere around this point that Leif's Light sword seems to ignore defense? Or something like that.
Ishtar takes to the field right behind Faval. Neat. She also brings THammer. Neat. So I know I need to get some help up north soon, as well as Patty in order to recruit Faval. Dealing with Ichival and THammer does not seem like much fun, so hopefully I can at least avoid the first part. In order to take down the mages up north, I tend to have Nanna healer the weaker of Fin and Leif, while the other goes into the enemy attack range. One of the sisters decides to head towards Lakche at the keep and fling spells at her (and miss) which helps allow Leif and Fin to more easily survive the other two. Leif also did some sort of critical hit with Light that was kind of neat. I should have made a gif.
Lakche finished off Ovo without a lot of trouble. Why did he get close? I have no idea, but I'm glad that he did. Serlis and most everyone else on my team is still wrapping up the red units down south. I'm actually pretty glad I left a lot of units down there since there were a fair number of enemies to worry about. Lakche gets lucky with a good dodge. Feels like I'm tempting fate, I've got to clear out the rest of the enemies.
Nanna is able to do some clutch self heal with the Earth sword on one turn where Fin and Leif are better off than she is. Femina is able to rescue a village and we learn that Hawk is a mage. But, where is he at? There's a village up north that I target as Femina's next rescue. At least that's the plan.
Serlis's group starts moving up, I try to prioritize getting Patty up first so interecept Faval before he kills someone with that bow. Lakche is again able to heal up via her skill while only one mage sister remains. Femina is unable to get to the village up north because Ishtar starts to come towards her . I hope that's not where Hawk was. I Wasn't expecting Ishtar to go off course to worry about Femina (who wasn't in her direct range anyways). Weird. Well, at least I don't need to worry about her quite yet and can allow Femina to distract her. I'm not gonna be able to save that village though.
I'm able to retreat Lakche back into the keep before Faval gets there, which probably ends up saving her life. With Leen's help, Patty is able to unexpectedly recruit him. Pssh. Who needs Lester and his Iron bow? Johan was able to promote into a Great Knight. I drop off his Paragon, which is eventually picked up by Lakche's brother, whose name I'm not going to attempt. He needs the exp and could afford the ring due to the bargaining skill from Dew. Hopefully he's able to make use of it.
Before Ishtar can do any damage to anyone with THammer, a young lad named Prince Julius stops her and they both disappear. Well, it is basically obvious that he is Alvis's son. He looks like what Alvis's son would look like. Julius is also a similar name to Julia, who is probably Alvis's daughter. But who knows for sure. Anyway, he's made himself known, and I imagine I will see him and Ishtar at some later date. I start moving my collected units to the right towards Conote and Blume. Not a lot of enemies in the way, but some long range magic to worry about, so I keep everyone healed up.
I use stronger units and equipment like Aless's Mistolin, Oifaye's Cutter, Faval's Ichival and Leif's Light in order to get past the generals and then quickly clear the mages with units like Fury and Lakche so that they can't bolt my weaker units like Delmud. In fact, Faval+Ichival clears the Brave Bow-dropping general, which is a good fit for him, obviously. I'm able to save the last village (so I'm 2 out of 3 so far). and the only threat left is Blume, who seems to like to use Bolting on one unit per turn. He does about 30 damage, so I make sure anyone within range simply have more health than that. I try to get my three healers (Nanna, Julia, and Lana) into the area quickly to keep people topped off.
Early on, one of the people that Blume attacks is Faval, which gives what just seems like a little bit of flavor text about his defection over to Serlis's side. I easily keep people healed up while slowing taking down the non-moving soldiers at the front door. I only attack them with mounted units like Delmud and his Cutter so that he can get a hit (and he can get exp) and retreat back to be healed and out of range. Being opportunistic, I allow all of the healers to get to level 20 by healing with Mend after each bolting. Yep. I finish off the bossman with Balmung once I'm done, what else?
So yep, I'm about to let Serlis sieze the keep, but not before promoting Nanna, Julia, and Lana into a Paladin, Sage, and High Priest respectively. Lana also purchases a thunder spell. I learn during this that I cannot trade Valkyrie to any of them, which is a bummer. Not that any of them seem to have S anyways. Seems Lester might be gone for good. So now that Blume's out of the picutre, seems like the southern forces led by Trabant will be the antagonists now. Will Alion (again, ???, something like that) and Hawk mage another appearance. Will we finally reclaim the Gae Bolg?[/IMG]
[QUOTE][IMG]http://i.imgur.com/6Ye6JoJl.jpg
So the Lenster peeps automatically head out to defend Lenster keep; meanwhile Arthur and Femina seem to be getting a little friendly. Each unit on the menu screen still has a "Lover" blank, but nothing filled in yet so I assume I just need to play further. Anyways, not a lot more to say to start out..
Julia and Serlis talk. I believe she said something along the lines of that we should not fight Ishtar, due to some premonition that she seems to have. Huh. Anyways, I will keep that in mind. Meanwhile, Beavis and Butthead decide to attack Lenster and Alster, respectively. Great. I figure that Femina and Lakche can get to Lenster quick enough to help those folks out. I later reason that I could have just warped a few people. Oh well, worked out in the end. Guess I don't typically expect to start with two keeps. The southern group is a variety of soldiers and mages, while the northern ones are nearly entirely javelin wielding cavaliers or whatever.
The ugly stepsisters are also back, and also head towards Lenster. For some reason they kind of slipped in under my radar and I didn't think to send any more help that way. Oops. Guess the 4/5 units that are already there will have to deal with them. While the sisters are each somewhat dangerous, out of all these various foes, Muhammad seems like the most capable, with two Brave weapons. Lakche meets up with Leif's group pretty quickly. I decide to have her Guard the keep. Her evasion and skills and general awesomeness will hopefully shine there.
So I ball up most of my units and wait for the first push, as I always do. Using the forest for cover because why not. Meanwhile, Blume sends out a person named Faval. Looks like a recruitable unit to me (that fact gets confirmed really quickly, within the same conversation.) Alongside the pending battles outside the two keeps, I start sending Femina around to saving some villages. So far she's been about equally as capable as Fury when it comes to that role.
During his conversation with Blume, Faval mentions Patty by name. Well the game certainly made that easy for me, huh? He also has the Ichival. What. Well I guess this little conversation quickly revealed who Brigid's children were. Aless and Tinny (of all people) go for the 1-2 on Muhammad, while the rest of that ball of units (along with Leen's help) wipe out the soldiers and mages pretty easily. Though there are a lot of them. Off screen, Lakche is pretty easily dodging Javelins and taking out a good chunk of the knights while the Lenster trio help out and also prepare for the 3 mage minibosses. Lakche sitting in a Keep and also being able to heal and astra keep her alive pretty easily. I also learn somewhere around this point that Leif's Light sword seems to ignore defense? Or something like that.
Ishtar takes to the field right behind Faval. Neat. She also brings THammer. Neat. So I know I need to get some help up north soon, as well as Patty in order to recruit Faval. Dealing with Ichival and THammer does not seem like much fun, so hopefully I can at least avoid the first part. In order to take down the mages up north, I tend to have Nanna healer the weaker of Fin and Leif, while the other goes into the enemy attack range. One of the sisters decides to head towards Lakche at the keep and fling spells at her (and miss) which helps allow Leif and Fin to more easily survive the other two. Leif also did some sort of critical hit with Light that was kind of neat. I should have made a gif.
Lakche finished off Ovo without a lot of trouble. Why did he get close? I have no idea, but I'm glad that he did. Serlis and most everyone else on my team is still wrapping up the red units down south. I'm actually pretty glad I left a lot of units down there since there were a fair number of enemies to worry about. Lakche gets lucky with a good dodge. Feels like I'm tempting fate, I've got to clear out the rest of the enemies.
Nanna is able to do some clutch self heal with the Earth sword on one turn where Fin and Leif are better off than she is. Femina is able to rescue a village and we learn that Hawk is a mage. But, where is he at? There's a village up north that I target as Femina's next rescue. At least that's the plan.
Serlis's group starts moving up, I try to prioritize getting Patty up first so interecept Faval before he kills someone with that bow. Lakche is again able to heal up via her skill while only one mage sister remains. Femina is unable to get to the village up north because Ishtar starts to come towards her
. I hope that's not where Hawk was. I Wasn't expecting Ishtar to go off course to worry about Femina (who wasn't in her direct range anyways). Weird. Well, at least I don't need to worry about her quite yet and can allow Femina to distract her. I'm not gonna be able to save that village though.
I'm able to retreat Lakche back into the keep before Faval gets there, which probably ends up saving her life. With Leen's help, Patty is able to unexpectedly recruit him. Pssh. Who needs Lester and his Iron bow? Johan was able to promote into a Great Knight. I drop off his Paragon, which is eventually picked up by Lakche's brother, whose name I'm not going to attempt. He needs the exp and could afford the ring due to the bargaining skill from Dew. Hopefully he's able to make use of it.
Before Ishtar can do any damage to anyone with THammer, a young lad named Prince Julius stops her and they both disappear. Well, it is basically obvious that he is Alvis's son. He looks like what Alvis's son would look like. Julius is also a similar name to Julia, who is probably Alvis's daughter. But who knows for sure. Anyway, he's made himself known, and I imagine I will see him and Ishtar at some later date. I start moving my collected units to the right towards Conote and Blume. Not a lot of enemies in the way, but some long range magic to worry about, so I keep everyone healed up.
I use stronger units and equipment like Aless's Mistolin, Oifaye's Cutter, Faval's Ichival and Leif's Light in order to get past the generals and then quickly clear the mages with units like Fury and Lakche so that they can't bolt my weaker units like Delmud. In fact, Faval+Ichival clears the Brave Bow-dropping general, which is a good fit for him, obviously. I'm able to save the last village (so I'm 2 out of 3 so far). and the only threat left is Blume, who seems to like to use Bolting on one unit per turn. He does about 30 damage, so I make sure anyone within range simply have more health than that. I try to get my three healers (Nanna, Julia, and Lana) into the area quickly to keep people topped off.
Early on, one of the people that Blume attacks is Faval, which gives what just seems like a little bit of flavor text about his defection over to Serlis's side. I easily keep people healed up while slowing taking down the non-moving soldiers at the front door. I only attack them with mounted units like Delmud and his Cutter so that he can get a hit (and he can get exp) and retreat back to be healed and out of range. Being opportunistic, I allow all of the healers to get to level 20 by healing with Mend after each bolting. Yep. I finish off the bossman with Balmung once I'm done, what else?
So yep, I'm about to let Serlis sieze the keep, but not before promoting Nanna, Julia, and Lana into a Paladin, Sage, and High Priest respectively. Lana also purchases a thunder spell. I learn during this that I cannot trade Valkyrie to any of them, which is a bummer. Not that any of them seem to have S anyways. Seems Lester might be gone for good. So now that Blume's out of the picutre, seems like the southern forces led by Trabant will be the antagonists now. Will Alion (again, ???, something like that) and Hawk mage another appearance. Will we finally reclaim the Gae Bolg?[/IMG]
Yes but you'll only get the primetime stuff. That's what I've got. OTA HD is great quality.
Stewart Scott and Chris Berman (who you know you have had a prominent role and had no idea what he was talking about) are reason enough for ESPN to never have the Olympics.
I don't see any scenario where it isn't China 1st, America 2nd. They are too dominant at the individual and at the "less athletic" sports these days while Jamaica has knocked the US off the perch in many of the T&F events. China's pool of competitors and infrastructure for targeted training gives them a pretty major advantage.
I'm pretty shocked they aren't showing the Opening Ceremonies on the site as well. Kind of unusual. I guess since we'll be getting a tape-delayed version here, they don't want to make it available online in advance.
Hmm.. I just want to watch the open ceremony and olympic weightlifting. I'm sure I can see the ceremony through this but olympic weightlifitng... who knows.
As we left off, Cuan and Ethlin had just arrived, with Trabant on their tails. Vaha sits in Phinora castle, bombarding Sigurd's troops with the long range Meteor spell. Many of her mages also pepper the desert, which along with the wyverns, means things are stacked against Sigurd. I guess this is a good place to mention that I hate desert levels? That's actually not entirely true, they are frustrating but in a good way, gives you a new set of limitations to work around.
So Vaha and some mages are poking at us with fireballs across the desert. Seems like a good excuse to get Fury some much needed love; she doesn't really have a defining moment so far I suppose. She actually seems surprisingly durable for her class, and I actually don't have to baby her much as she heads off to take out the mages. Just make sure she's only in the range of one, maybe two, at any given time. I start racing everyone down to help Cuan and Ethlin. Unfortunately, the desert area seems to make that difficult.
So the wyverns are obviously much faster than the lance knights, and I even learn later that they are armed with slayer weapons. Basically...Cuan's unit is totally boned Ethlin brought their daughter Altenna around for some reason, which seems like an exceedingly bad idea at this point. The Thracian soldiers are easily dispatching the units on horseback, and Trabant seems to take an interest in the little girl.
Vaha herself starts launching missles, as if things weren't bad enough, Cuan soon finds himself surrounded....both he and Ethlin, and the entire unit is wiped out except for the kid, who Trabant takes away. In his death sequence, Cuan mentions Leif, who I don't know who that is. Trabant leaves the uninteresting Magorn behind to wrap things up while he bails. Trabant also takes the Gae Bolg, which I don't think I ever saw in action, sadly. Clearly it wasn't good enough to save Cuan.
(
Azel and Lex speak for the first time since the early early chapters. Both are a little distraught at their family members having taken seemingly unfavorable roles in this conflict. Dew talks to Jamka and is told to get lost, but luckily he didn't because I ended up needing him later!. I find that I am very glad Fury was not farther south and was able to get out of the way of the incoming drakes.
I pull back my units now that there is no one to rush towards. Sigurd and Aira have a talk about Shanan, and unsurprisingly she refuses to leave. As mentioned, the knights have slayer weapons so I let them come to me as I set up to try to clear out as many as possible before their turn.
The wyverns are actually not too hard to take out once they are close, since I have 3 very capable archers (now that Midir is promoted) and a lot of various magic users, and on top of that none of the enemies have any long range options to attack back. I even use the dancer to give those units more turns. All in all, I just find myself wishing Trabant would stick around and stop leaving generic mcgenericness to fight his fights for him. I defeat the substitute wyvern leader with Midir, who has become quite formidable with the new loadout and increased movement range. Afterwards, I finish mopping up the various mages with Fury, sending her back to Lachesis to heal if needed.
During the lull in activity, I send Sigurd back to check out repairing his father's gift...and man he's waaaaay short on dough. Things don't look good. Unless I've missed a mechanic, their's no way to gain money other than village rescuing (none left), arena fighting (not nearly enough) or selling equipment off to the pawn shop. I could have him sell off his rescue and speed rings for 20,000 but that still leaves him short. Since his lover is MIA, that means Dew is the only one able to give him money, right? Dew, it's time to man up. I actually see the first possible subject for easily money making outside of the next castle, but I have to take on the mages that will probably one shot him. Vaha doesn't seem much harder than any of the other Meteor hurlers, so I do some shuffling in order to give Fury Sigurd's javelin, and rather easily dispatch of the general. Oddly enough, even parked clearly in range of the two sleep stave wielding priestesses, she didn't seem to be a sleep target. My running theory is that her resistance was too high.
However, Dew is a target, but wasting turns to wear it off isn't a big deal. I steal 1000 gold from each but that seems to be it. I thought I would steal more from enemies in this chapter, or that I could steal multiple times per person. I guess it's reasonable that you can't. Sigurd learns the fate of Cuan and Ethlin from the Phinoran elder. Understandably, he is now rather upset.
General Ida shows her face, and leads the Velthomer troops in support of Reptor's unit. However, the game doesn't really hide the fact that the two of them are not on the same page. Reptor is seemingly being used. Since he decides not to move to start out, I decide to go Fury against the mages round 2. I think she has easily doubled her kill count this chapter.
Lots of motivational talks now. Most are seemingly fluff, except I noticed that Tiltyu and Claude mentioned having a child. I had really thought of Tiltyu as being much younger but I guess not. I don't believe the child was named at this point. Of the other couples, I don't believe any of them specifically mentioned having had children. Beowulf does mention to Lachesis that Fin is back in Lester (I think) with Cuan's children. This is either the mentioned Leif and another child, or Beowulf assumes Altenna is also there when she was not. I think before I move on I'm going to jot down all the children I am aware of, but at the moment that's not important.
After taking out maybe half of the various mages on the perimeter, Reptor and his units start moving out before I finish and I quickly have to have Fury bail out. However, Ida turns on him and starts launching attacks at them. QUE. 3 way fight! Anyways, now that Reptor is moving, I go back to the tried and true method of waiting on my heels until they all get into range and then I can do what I want. One thing I notice and want to focus on is that Reptor's unit have a handful of bowmen and priests, which seem like prime targets for Dew to get a few hits in in order to have some money to give to Sigurd to fix the mysterious weapon. Obviously though, Dew is very weak and I would need to play defensively. I give him the Thief sword in hopes that it would increase the money made but I'm not sure it did anything. Its crappy hit rate also made it not very useful. I notice that for some reason, at this point to the east of the Velthome castle, Reptor's troops would kind of shuffle around and never approach further unless I unit was in range. Very lucky for me.
I steal a little more from these units which is really nice. The only initial unit I have to worry about is a Silver wielding myrimon (or hero?) that I simply have a bunch of my units gang up on. I even let Dew get a hit on the mages since none could kill him in one hit. I end up using Aideen's Rescue staff to get him out of danger a couple times. The armored knights had crappy range and the elthunder mages could do damage but never attack twice. After taking out the enemies that were willing to pull forward a bit, I place Brigid in range of the armored archers, which attack her and she easily slays in retaliation. Eventually all that's left is Reptor and a priest.
Reptor's THammer seems incredibly powerful, he has some amazing stats. Brigid + Ichival won't work here since he can one shot her. It actually makes more sense to use a magic unit anyways to have higher resistance and also to take advantage of his lower resistance. Levin seems like my best overall character that would be fit enough to go toe to toe with this guy. Even if I do only have Elwind with a few heals it ends up not being too bad, and Reptor finally falls. Unfortunately, this removed the priest as well, which I was hoping to have Dew whack for some more money. Oh well.
I trade over Dew's gold to Sigurd, have him pawn off the two rings he had, and finally he's wielding Tyrfing!. First order of business was to chump some fools in the arena of course. Nothing better he should be doing with his time now, right? Also, Noish is a Paladin! (He killed a few of the priests that Dew had stolen from and finally arrived at level 20.). Huzzah! I don't know why I bothered with him and Alec, to be honest. Very boring characters that don't excel at anything.
I notice that Ida is not attacking my units in range. I guess I do finally recognize that she turned yellowish which I suppose means ally. Interesting! A million turns later, I finally have my units past the desert and all right outside Velthome castle. Sigurd speaks to Ida to see what's going on. With Langbart and Reptor dead, is his name cleared? Is the fighting over?
Ida welcomes Sigurd home as a hero. The soldiers line up as if a parade was about to start. This actually was a little abrupt, I thought I was gonna have to fight a whole lot more to get to the imposing looking Bahara castle. Alvis is there to greet Sigurd with open arms.
Psych Alvis is secretly a bastard and sentences Sigurd to death. While this is legitimately pretty damn heavy stuff, especially since it doesn't seem like empty threats, it actually does make me wonder about Ida's place in Alvis and Manfloy's plans. Clearly she was trusted more than Reptor or Langbart. Trabant is still around too. Sigurd is reunited with his wife for the first time in years, but she doesn't remember him at all. He calls out to her but she doesn't care and doesn't know the man in front of her. While Sigurd is still reeling from this, Alvis gives him no time to lament or suffer any longer. He gives the execution order.
This time there are no heroics at play. Meteors fall as any chance of escape are extinguished. A bloodbath. Alvis initially make it seem like he could potentially want power in order to declare a formal sort of mandated peace in the typical misguided hero sort of way, but nope, I don't think he had any good intentions at all. And there's still the goals of Manfloy at play as well. Is this what he wanted? Is the Tyrfing now in enemy hands as well as the Gae Bolg?
Oddly enough, my thoughts also go to "Is Fin the only non-child that survived?"
I don't usually like to resort to reaction gifs, but in the spirit of the movie releasing, I direct this to Alvis.
So Vaha and some mages are poking at us with fireballs across the desert. Seems like a good excuse to get Fury some much needed love; she doesn't really have a defining moment so far I suppose. She actually seems surprisingly durable for her class, and I actually don't have to baby her much as she heads off to take out the mages. Just make sure she's only in the range of one, maybe two, at any given time. I start racing everyone down to help Cuan and Ethlin. Unfortunately, the desert area seems to make that difficult.
So the wyverns are obviously much faster than the lance knights, and I even learn later that they are armed with slayer weapons. Basically...Cuan's unit is totally boned
Ethlin brought their daughter Altenna around for some reason, which seems like an exceedingly bad idea at this point. The Thracian soldiers are easily dispatching the units on horseback, and Trabant seems to take an interest in the little girl. 
Vaha herself starts launching missles, as if things weren't bad enough, Cuan soon finds himself surrounded....both he and Ethlin, and the entire unit is wiped out except for the kid, who Trabant takes away. In his death sequence, Cuan mentions Leif, who I don't know who that is. Trabant leaves the uninteresting Magorn behind to wrap things up while he bails. Trabant also takes the Gae Bolg, which I don't think I ever saw in action, sadly. Clearly it wasn't good enough to save Cuan.
(
Azel and Lex speak for the first time since the early early chapters. Both are a little distraught at their family members having taken seemingly unfavorable roles in this conflict. Dew talks to Jamka and is told to get lost, but luckily he didn't because I ended up needing him later!. I find that I am very glad Fury was not farther south and was able to get out of the way of the incoming drakes.
I pull back my units now that there is no one to rush towards. Sigurd and Aira have a talk about Shanan, and unsurprisingly she refuses to leave. As mentioned, the knights have slayer weapons so I let them come to me as I set up to try to clear out as many as possible before their turn.
The wyverns are actually not too hard to take out once they are close, since I have 3 very capable archers (now that Midir is promoted) and a lot of various magic users, and on top of that none of the enemies have any long range options to attack back. I even use the dancer to give those units more turns. All in all, I just find myself wishing Trabant would stick around and stop leaving generic mcgenericness to fight his fights for him. I defeat the substitute wyvern leader with Midir, who has become quite formidable with the new loadout and increased movement range. Afterwards, I finish mopping up the various mages with Fury, sending her back to Lachesis to heal if needed.
During the lull in activity, I send Sigurd back to check out repairing his father's gift...and man he's waaaaay short on dough. Things don't look good. Unless I've missed a mechanic, their's no way to gain money other than village rescuing (none left), arena fighting (not nearly enough) or selling equipment off to the pawn shop. I could have him sell off his rescue and speed rings for 20,000 but that still leaves him short. Since his lover is MIA, that means Dew is the only one able to give him money, right? Dew, it's time to man up. I actually see the first possible subject for easily money making outside of the next castle, but I have to take on the mages that will probably one shot him. Vaha doesn't seem much harder than any of the other Meteor hurlers, so I do some shuffling in order to give Fury Sigurd's javelin, and rather easily dispatch of the general. Oddly enough, even parked clearly in range of the two sleep stave wielding priestesses, she didn't seem to be a sleep target. My running theory is that her resistance was too high.
However, Dew is a target, but wasting turns to wear it off isn't a big deal. I steal 1000 gold from each but that seems to be it. I thought I would steal more from enemies in this chapter, or that I could steal multiple times per person. I guess it's reasonable that you can't. Sigurd learns the fate of Cuan and Ethlin from the Phinoran elder. Understandably, he is now rather upset.
General Ida shows her face, and leads the Velthomer troops in support of Reptor's unit. However, the game doesn't really hide the fact that the two of them are not on the same page. Reptor is seemingly being used. Since he decides not to move to start out, I decide to go Fury against the mages round 2. I think she has easily doubled her kill count this chapter.
Lots of motivational talks now. Most are seemingly fluff, except I noticed that Tiltyu and Claude mentioned having a child. I had really thought of Tiltyu as being much younger but I guess not. I don't believe the child was named at this point. Of the other couples, I don't believe any of them specifically mentioned having had children. Beowulf does mention to Lachesis that Fin is back in Lester (I think) with Cuan's children. This is either the mentioned Leif and another child, or Beowulf assumes Altenna is also there when she was not. I think before I move on I'm going to jot down all the children I am aware of, but at the moment that's not important.
After taking out maybe half of the various mages on the perimeter, Reptor and his units start moving out before I finish and I quickly have to have Fury bail out. However, Ida turns on him and starts launching attacks at them. QUE. 3 way fight! Anyways, now that Reptor is moving, I go back to the tried and true method of waiting on my heels until they all get into range and then I can do what I want. One thing I notice and want to focus on is that Reptor's unit have a handful of bowmen and priests, which seem like prime targets for Dew to get a few hits in in order to have some money to give to Sigurd to fix the mysterious weapon. Obviously though, Dew is very weak and I would need to play defensively. I give him the Thief sword in hopes that it would increase the money made but I'm not sure it did anything. Its crappy hit rate also made it not very useful. I notice that for some reason, at this point to the east of the Velthome castle, Reptor's troops would kind of shuffle around and never approach further unless I unit was in range. Very lucky for me.
I steal a little more from these units which is really nice. The only initial unit I have to worry about is a Silver wielding myrimon (or hero?) that I simply have a bunch of my units gang up on. I even let Dew get a hit on the mages since none could kill him in one hit. I end up using Aideen's Rescue staff to get him out of danger a couple times. The armored knights had crappy range and the elthunder mages could do damage but never attack twice. After taking out the enemies that were willing to pull forward a bit, I place Brigid in range of the armored archers, which attack her and she easily slays in retaliation. Eventually all that's left is Reptor and a priest.
Reptor's THammer seems incredibly powerful, he has some amazing stats. Brigid + Ichival won't work here since he can one shot her. It actually makes more sense to use a magic unit anyways to have higher resistance and also to take advantage of his lower resistance. Levin seems like my best overall character that would be fit enough to go toe to toe with this guy. Even if I do only have Elwind
with a few heals it ends up not being too bad, and Reptor finally falls. Unfortunately, this removed the priest as well, which I was hoping to have Dew whack for some more money. Oh well.
I trade over Dew's gold to Sigurd, have him pawn off the two rings he had, and finally he's wielding Tyrfing!. First order of business was to chump some fools in the arena of course. Nothing better he should be doing with his time now, right? Also, Noish is a Paladin! (He killed a few of the priests that Dew had stolen from and finally arrived at level 20.). Huzzah! I don't know why I bothered with him and Alec, to be honest. Very boring characters that don't excel at anything.
I notice that Ida is not attacking my units in range. I guess I do finally recognize that she turned yellowish which I suppose means ally. Interesting! A million turns later, I finally have my units past the desert and all right outside Velthome castle. Sigurd speaks to Ida to see what's going on. With Langbart and Reptor dead, is his name cleared? Is the fighting over?
Ida welcomes Sigurd home as a hero. The soldiers line up as if a parade was about to start. This actually was a little abrupt, I thought I was gonna have to fight a whole lot more to get to the imposing looking Bahara castle. Alvis is there to greet Sigurd with open arms.
Psych Alvis is secretly a bastard and sentences Sigurd to death. While this is legitimately pretty damn heavy stuff, especially since it doesn't seem like empty threats, it actually does make me wonder about Ida's place in Alvis and Manfloy's plans. Clearly she was trusted more than Reptor or Langbart. Trabant is still around too. Sigurd is reunited with his wife for the first time in years, but she doesn't remember him at all. He calls out to her but she doesn't care and doesn't know the man in front of her. While Sigurd is still reeling from this, Alvis gives him no time to lament or suffer any longer. He gives the execution order.
This time there are no heroics at play. Meteors fall as any chance of escape are extinguished. A bloodbath. Alvis initially make it seem like he could potentially want power in order to declare a formal sort of mandated peace in the typical misguided hero sort of way, but nope, I don't think he had any good intentions at all. And there's still the goals of Manfloy at play as well. Is this what he wanted? Is the Tyrfing now in enemy hands as well as the Gae Bolg?
Oddly enough, my thoughts also go to "Is Fin the only non-child that survived?"
I don't usually like to resort to reaction gifs, but in the spirit of the movie releasing, I direct this to Alvis.
Sweet.
Noticed Eurosport was showing football earlier too, presume any Olympic stuff on it must be free too.
Since twitter is here now then people in the US are going to be spoiled once the big events like track and swimming happen when they haven't even aired yet in the US.
"Phelps and Usain won? but the event hasn't even started! " is going to be said many times once twitter trends start happening, the US is behind the rest of the world for the next 15 days for many events.
"Phelps and Usain won? but the event hasn't even started! " is going to be said many times once twitter trends start happening, the US is behind the rest of the world for the next 15 days for many events.
Alan Partridge doing the opening ceremony http://youtu.be/xnUNZs42GzY
I would hope people would not be that dense but you never know haha. NBC just trying to milk the primetime spots. I think less and less people will tune in to the tape-delayed broadcasts with the advent of the technology and resources (like twitter) we have now. I know I will be watching everything live on the website.
Yeah any Olympic stuff is free to air.
So sky 3D should be free once they start showing Olympics.
ConfusingJazz
Member
I can risk that for Chris Fowler, Rece Davis, or Bob Ley.
This scenario was pretty prevalent when they were in Beijing as well due to the significant time difference. ESPN and other news outlets all had the stuff up shortly after it happened. In years past, it was possible to remain blissfully ignorant but not any more.
killer_clank
Member
For Americans trying to get around the tape delay, I'm not sure if the EBU live feeds will work outside of Europe:
http://www.eurovisionsports.tv/london2012/index.html
Hopefully they do.
http://www.eurovisionsports.tv/london2012/index.html
Hopefully they do.
Alright, so I manage to go through all of Chapter 6 in one sitting. It's actually a pretty short chapter. Because of that, and because there is a lot of plot surrounding the time jump, this post is a little larger than the rest. A lot of new characters that I have to compartmentalize in my head as to who they are related to, as well as the details of the new and emerging conflict. It's also interesting to see the influences of my first half playthrough on Act 2, even if it does just boil down to items and skills (at least at the moment.)
Alvis is ruler of the whole universe, the survivors of the massacre are scattered and a few holy weapons are stolen or missing or something. The threat of a Dark Lord revival still looms. Not a good set of circumstances for Serlis to enter the picture, but it's not like he had a choice.
In the aftermath, Alvis is the only one left standing, and manages to unify the world, or most of it. He grows uglier and eviler with age. Expectedly, his rule is ruthless and uncompassionate. Isaac has been gifted to Langbart's son Dannan (which I guess would make him Lex's brother?) Dannan rules the province with his sons Johan and Johalva. Harold is also a generic general in the area.
But also in Isaac are the (forgotten?) Prince Shanan and Sigurd's son Serlis. They have started the Dawn Brigade Liberation Army set to oppose Alvis' rule, or at least seek Isaacian freedom I suppose. Apparantly they've been under the skin of Dannan for too long who seeks to wipe them out before they become a bigger threat.
We are introduced to the first of our new heroes here. The Myrmidons Scathach and Lakche, children of Dew and Aira. Lakche has all of Aira's neat weaponry including the Brave Sword and Silver Blade as well as the +3 movement ring. Going to be an awesome unit I imagine. Scathach only inherited Dew's Thief sword (haha!). They both have a pretty awesome set of skills, including Sol, which I'm not sure where that came from. I guess Dew must have had it? Either way, off to a pretty good start. Serlis himself is a Jr Lord and fights like a pre-promoted Roy or Eliwood. At least that was the first comparison in my mind. Lastly we are introduced to Lana a priest with a Mend and Warp staff. Aideen's Daughter? She can only heal at this point.
Luckily most of the early enemies are axe-units and don't have much chance of hitting all my guys. Even Lana dodges a blow. I always enjoy watching the battle scenes with un-mounted units more for some reason, I guess I don't like the way horses look. So I appreciate Serlis not having a mount (yet?). After one turn we are introduced to even more friends. Oifaye (I had nearly forgotten about him) Lester and and Delmund! They are a Paladin, Bowknight, and Freeknight respectively. I guess Oifaye is the first real "Jeigan" type character, I don't recall a significantly higher leveled unit in the first part of the game. Based on his loadout, I assume Delmud is a son a Beowulf and Lachesis, which I suppose makes him a Nodion prince? At least a Lord. At this point I'm unsure on Lester, he just comes with an Iron bow.
Lester has a talk with Lana which confuses me a bit. They are siblings, which would put them an Azel and Aideen's children. I guess it explains why Lester didn't get anything from his dad. Well, when I pay further attention, he does have a skill ring. They suggest that Aideen is alive (or was alive?) somewhere, though. Bit confusing if you assume everyone died at the end of chapter 5. One of the two gets some stats up from talking. A second wave of enemy approaches, but mostly more axe units so it's not too frightening. Oifaye and Serlis reunite, and the rebel force grows stronger.
Johan and Johalva each lead a force while daddy Dannan sits at his castle waiting for the rebel force to be defeated. I notice that he doesn't really have any special weapons, which is good to see I suppose. Seems like a lot of forces in between us and him but..
Visiting the village near Harold suggests that both Johan and Johalva have a thing for Lakche. The old man basically spells it out that we can recruit them. Interesting. Harold himself is armed with a Return ring. What the hell good does that do him? Well, he doesn't look very tough. We also learn of a third son named Burian, and we know these names are not dropped on us without reason . I wonder when he will show up.
All of my sword units takes shots at him. Lakche's Silver Blade, Delmud's Cutter, and Scathach is stuck with an iron weapon, haha. Anyways. pretty easy to just overwhelm him and take him out. He doesn't drop anything interesting or share anything of note.
During this, I sent Oifaye, who I am trying to use sparingly, into a keep to see what was up. No arena . Well, I seize the new keep and learn that Levin is alive! what . So I suppose not everyone died, and it makes the earlier comments about Aideen make more sense as well. So now the question is who died and who survived? What about Sigurd? Questions questions. We are also introduced to Julia and she looks a bit like Deirdre and also is a Shaman. Potentially Deirdre and Alvis' child? Does that imply that she's on the run from Manfloy? Interesting that she is in Levin's company, who most don't assume is still alive. More questions.
Lana and Julia talk, and Julia receives a Mend staff, so now I have two designated healers (which I've learned doesn't really bug me, haha.) Meanwhile, Dannan orders his children to go on the offensive, and both Johan and Johalva mention Lakche before going off to battle. These guys are a little obsessed I think >_> . Just more evidence to suggest that we should recruit them.
Meanwhile, Arthur and Femina show up. Both are apparently looking for opposite gendered siblings, though Femina seems more interested in joining up with the rebellion. Arthur is a Windmage while Femina is a Peg. Knight. I wonder if Femina is a "replacement" that I've heard in passing in the last day for not having Fury have any children. Well, it doesn't matter at this point. She has an interesting Berserk weapon. Arthur has Wind and also the Valkyrie staff. I assume then that he is Tiltyu and Claude's son, which seems likely due to his appearance. I'm sort of confused has to why he has the staff if he's unable to use it, since Lester did not gain Azel's magic that he was unable to use. Maybe promotions are taken into account or something. There are a few villages nearby that these guys will focus on rescuing I guess. Meanwhile Serlis and Co. find themselves pinched between a bunch of axemen: mounted on the south side led by Johan, unmounted on the west, led by Johalva. At least most of my guys are still primarily sword users, right? And I have two healers!
Lakche (I almost wrote "Aira" here, bad habit) and Oifaye both have great movement (thanks to the Leg ring and being a Paladin respectively) which I use to my advantage. Oifaye takes out the one unit in front of Johan, and then Lakche is able to talk to him. He is immediately friendzoned, but joins up anyways, and his units become allies, good thing I left nearly all of them alive. Johalva is instantly jealous that he did not get shot down first, and seems more determined to wipe out the growing rebel force.
A cool battle takes place, I would be outnumbered but I have a bunch of mounted axe units on my side now. Only Johalva is a real immediate danger here, and even then he's weak for a boss. I think maybe I can recruit him, but neither Lakche or Johan are able to Talk. I guess this was just an either-or choice. I'm not picky, and having Johan over his brother is fine with me. Meanwhile, while the brothers fight amongst themselves, Dannan sends one last contemporary Schmidt into the fight to retake what had been lost to Serlis. Back to Johalva: As with any axe wielding boss, a Brave Sword wieldingAira Lakche is always a good idea. Seems like the text didn't wrap properly here. First such glitch I've encountered in this patch I think.
Johan is also able to have one last conversation with his bro before taking an axe to his cranium. Brotherly love. Meanwhile, Schmidt and his knights are racing to the castle simply named "Isaac", which is only defending by an NPC. I start sending my units down to try to get to it. Meanwhile, Arthur and Femina have saved most of the other villages, just for money and news, though.
The castle is quickly overwhelmed before I get there. My green axe units disappear too D: . I start moving my units back into the tree cover, again keeping sword units out in front. Most of the enemies are equipped with hand axes, which is annoying, but at least they are very inaccurate. The village near here gives Serlis a Skill ring, which I suppose is better than nothing. Schmidt himself has a Brave Axe, but doesn't seem too tough. He has a lot of health/defense, however.
I gang up on the miniboss with the usual strong weapons. I use Oifaye to get a damaging blow on him. Eventually, Scathach kills him a gets a Brave Axe! How useful for him . I will have to trade it to Johan eventually. Even Femina is able to fly over and help out. Having two healers is pretty great here, and neither are ganged up on by the attackers. They seem to like chucking axes are the sword users for some reason. A few do attack Lester and he has a close call but manages to pull through.
Arthur and Femina both introduce themselves to Serlis and officially join his company. After healing up and topping everyone off, I notice that there are two castles to take, one west, Sophara, and one south, Isaac. I decide to send a few units to take out Sophara since it's a dead end. It's guarded by a nameless soldier, which is easy to take out with the combined effort of Serlis, Delmud, and Lester. After the keep is siezed, no real important scenes play, just one showing that the Isaacian townsfolk support Serlis and want to see Dannan's rule ended.
However, it was more meaningful than I thought. Back with the group, Serlis tells Julia that he apparently found an Aura spell for her to use. She says it seems familiar. HMMMMMM. Anyways, it's nice that she will be able to both heal and deal, and Aura is a pretty awesome spell. At this point, I'm going with the assumption that she's Deirdre's daughter...or clone. Serlis also have a friendly chat with Lana, which I will now start assuming is the start of a love interest. How boring! Oh well. Castle Isaac is also estatic that Serlis is finally taking action and overthrowing the illigetimate rule of Dannan.
I move all my units towards the last castle (Ganeish something?). I'm very surprised that there are no stationary enemies in the way. It sort of feels as if the map is incomplete. Oh well, I'm not complaining. To further put the map out on a whimper, the boss has absolutely no range damage, which basically means I've already won. My two weakest units at this point are Arthur and Julia, so I set up both to take shots at the boss. It spend a few turns pew pewing away and eventually the boss is very weak. I don't really intentionally "boss abuse" him, but both casters were pretty inaccurate so it took a few goes to get all the appropriate hits to land. At least Lana got some exp topping off the two casters after a few level ups.
Once Dannan was really weak, I decided to add to the narrative flair by allowing Johan to get the final blow. So now he's killed his brother and his father in the name of love for a girl who doesn't love him back. I think he's the most mentally unstable party member I've had, haha. Levin goes off on a plot bonanza at this point. He mentioned a brother Julius, who I don't know at this point. He also suggests something that I originally inferred, that Alvis seemingly wanted to rule with at least some degree of compassion but eventually things just got worse and worse. He goes off on explaining how it is basically Serlis' destiny to restore order, and even name drops the Tyrfing itself. These guys seem pretty obsessed with their Holy Weapons, huh?
We learn that Fin is alive, along with the Prince Leif, Cuan's other child. I assume Altenna is still missing. Fin looks like he's barely aged a day, apparently they've got a fountain of youth hiding somewhere in Lenster. We are then immediately introduced to a hundred more names. I'll try to keep it straight: We learn of King Blume, who is Reptor's son that was assumingly gifted the province by Alvis. We also learn of Cutozov, who I assume is just a rather unimportant Dark Sect guy, as well as Bramsel and Jabarro, who seem to be some sort of hired Mercenary and Merchant, respectively. Basically I think these guys are just miniboss castle guardians. We also learn of General Liza, who is a palette swap of Ida so the idea that either of them were ever important is immediately thrown out. However, We also learn of Blume's niece Tiinny as well some guy named Ishtor who are other characters at play. If I've kept my mental family ties intact, I guess Tinny is somehow related to Tiltyu and thus Arthur? Maybe she is the missing sister. I could have missed a generation or gotten something confused. No hints as to the missing brother of Femina, however.
We also see a girl named Nanna with the Lenster folk, who I'd guess is Lachesis' daughter, making her Delmud's brother, right? Speaking of Lachesis, reminds me that Eltshan still his a child that has yet to be introduced (I think). Menwhile, Blume orders some other generic bad guy to deal with either the Lenster peeps or the approaching rebel force from Isaac, I forget which.
If that wasn't enough factions to keep straight, we also finally see Shanan! We learn that he was raiding a place called the Yied Shrine along with a thief named Patty, but not working together. She seems to be a brand new character, I like her design though. Shanan seems to also having taken up the family business of being a swordmaster. Meanwhile, Cutozov talks to some other Dark Sect guy who is furious that they allowed Shanan and Patty to steal the Balmung from the shrine. Levin suggests to Serlis that control of the shrine is important, though at this point neither are aware of the burglary having taken place.
So Serlis, Leif, and Shanan are the three major players at this point in the story, and I feel the circumstances are aligned where they are all about to meet.
Alvis is ruler of the whole universe, the survivors of the massacre are scattered and a few holy weapons are stolen or missing or something. The threat of a Dark Lord revival still looms. Not a good set of circumstances for Serlis to enter the picture, but it's not like he had a choice.
In the aftermath, Alvis is the only one left standing, and manages to unify the world, or most of it. He grows uglier and eviler with age. Expectedly, his rule is ruthless and uncompassionate. Isaac has been gifted to Langbart's son Dannan (which I guess would make him Lex's brother?) Dannan rules the province with his sons Johan and Johalva. Harold is also a generic general in the area.
But also in Isaac are the (forgotten?) Prince Shanan and Sigurd's son Serlis. They have started the
We are introduced to the first of our new heroes here. The Myrmidons Scathach and Lakche, children of Dew and Aira. Lakche has all of Aira's neat weaponry including the Brave Sword and Silver Blade as well as the +3 movement ring. Going to be an awesome unit I imagine. Scathach only inherited Dew's Thief sword (haha!). They both have a pretty awesome set of skills, including Sol, which I'm not sure where that came from. I guess Dew must have had it? Either way, off to a pretty good start. Serlis himself is a Jr Lord and fights like a pre-promoted Roy or Eliwood. At least that was the first comparison in my mind. Lastly we are introduced to Lana a priest with a Mend and Warp staff. Aideen's Daughter? She can only heal at this point.
Luckily most of the early enemies are axe-units and don't have much chance of hitting all my guys. Even Lana dodges a blow. I always enjoy watching the battle scenes with un-mounted units more for some reason, I guess I don't like the way horses look. So I appreciate Serlis not having a mount (yet?). After one turn we are introduced to even more friends. Oifaye (I had nearly forgotten about him) Lester and and Delmund! They are a Paladin, Bowknight, and Freeknight respectively. I guess Oifaye is the first real "Jeigan" type character, I don't recall a significantly higher leveled unit in the first part of the game. Based on his loadout, I assume Delmud is a son a Beowulf and Lachesis, which I suppose makes him a Nodion prince? At least a Lord. At this point I'm unsure on Lester, he just comes with an Iron bow.
Lester has a talk with Lana which confuses me a bit. They are siblings, which would put them an Azel and Aideen's children. I guess it explains why Lester didn't get anything from his dad
. Well, when I pay further attention, he does have a skill ring. They suggest that Aideen is alive (or was alive?) somewhere, though. Bit confusing if you assume everyone died at the end of chapter 5. One of the two gets some stats up from talking. A second wave of enemy approaches, but mostly more axe units so it's not too frightening. Oifaye and Serlis reunite, and the rebel force grows stronger.
Johan and Johalva each lead a force while daddy Dannan sits at his castle waiting for the rebel force to be defeated. I notice that he doesn't really have any special weapons, which is good to see I suppose. Seems like a lot of forces in between us and him but..
Visiting the village near Harold suggests that both Johan and Johalva have a thing for Lakche. The old man basically spells it out that we can recruit them. Interesting. Harold himself is armed with a Return ring. What the hell good does that do him? Well, he doesn't look very tough. We also learn of a third son named Burian, and we know these names are not dropped on us without reason
. I wonder when he will show up.
All of my sword units takes shots at him. Lakche's Silver Blade, Delmud's Cutter, and Scathach is stuck with an iron weapon, haha. Anyways. pretty easy to just overwhelm him and take him out. He doesn't drop anything interesting or share anything of note.
During this, I sent Oifaye, who I am trying to use sparingly, into a keep to see what was up. No arena
. Well, I seize the new keep and learn that Levin is alive! what . So I suppose not everyone died, and it makes the earlier comments about Aideen make more sense as well. So now the question is who died and who survived? What about Sigurd? Questions questions. We are also introduced to Julia and she looks a bit like Deirdre and also is a Shaman. Potentially Deirdre and Alvis' child? Does that imply that she's on the run from Manfloy? Interesting that she is in Levin's company, who most don't assume is still alive. More questions.
Lana and Julia talk, and Julia receives a Mend staff, so now I have two designated healers (which I've learned doesn't really bug me, haha.) Meanwhile, Dannan orders his children to go on the offensive, and both Johan and Johalva mention Lakche before going off to battle. These guys are a little obsessed I think >_> . Just more evidence to suggest that we should recruit them.
Meanwhile, Arthur and Femina show up. Both are apparently looking for opposite gendered siblings, though Femina seems more interested in joining up with the rebellion. Arthur is a Windmage while Femina is a Peg. Knight. I wonder if Femina is a "replacement" that I've heard in passing in the last day for not having Fury have any children. Well, it doesn't matter at this point. She has an interesting Berserk weapon. Arthur has Wind and also the Valkyrie staff. I assume then that he is Tiltyu and Claude's son, which seems likely due to his appearance. I'm sort of confused has to why he has the staff if he's unable to use it, since Lester did not gain Azel's magic that he was unable to use. Maybe promotions are taken into account or something. There are a few villages nearby that these guys will focus on rescuing I guess. Meanwhile Serlis and Co. find themselves pinched between a bunch of axemen: mounted on the south side led by Johan, unmounted on the west, led by Johalva. At least most of my guys are still primarily sword users, right? And I have two healers!
Lakche (I almost wrote "Aira" here, bad habit) and Oifaye both have great movement (thanks to the Leg ring and being a Paladin respectively) which I use to my advantage. Oifaye takes out the one unit in front of Johan, and then Lakche is able to talk to him. He is immediately friendzoned, but joins up anyways, and his units become allies, good thing I left nearly all of them alive. Johalva is instantly jealous that he did not get shot down first, and seems more determined to wipe out the growing rebel force.
A cool battle takes place, I would be outnumbered but I have a bunch of mounted axe units on my side now. Only Johalva is a real immediate danger here, and even then he's weak for a boss. I think maybe I can recruit him, but neither Lakche or Johan are able to Talk. I guess this was just an either-or choice. I'm not picky, and having Johan over his brother is fine with me. Meanwhile, while the brothers fight amongst themselves, Dannan sends one last contemporary Schmidt into the fight to retake what had been lost to Serlis. Back to Johalva: As with any axe wielding boss, a Brave Sword wielding
Johan is also able to have one last conversation with his bro before taking an axe to his cranium. Brotherly love. Meanwhile, Schmidt and his knights are racing to the castle simply named "Isaac", which is only defending by an NPC. I start sending my units down to try to get to it. Meanwhile, Arthur and Femina have saved most of the other villages, just for money and news, though.
The castle is quickly overwhelmed before I get there. My green axe units disappear too D: . I start moving my units back into the tree cover, again keeping sword units out in front. Most of the enemies are equipped with hand axes, which is annoying, but at least they are very inaccurate. The village near here gives Serlis a Skill ring, which I suppose is better than nothing. Schmidt himself has a Brave Axe, but doesn't seem too tough. He has a lot of health/defense, however.
I gang up on the miniboss with the usual strong weapons. I use Oifaye to get a damaging blow on him. Eventually, Scathach kills him a gets a Brave Axe! How useful for him
. I will have to trade it to Johan eventually. Even Femina is able to fly over and help out. Having two healers is pretty great here, and neither are ganged up on by the attackers. They seem to like chucking axes are the sword users for some reason. A few do attack Lester and he has a close call but manages to pull through. 
Arthur and Femina both introduce themselves to Serlis and officially join his company. After healing up and topping everyone off, I notice that there are two castles to take, one west, Sophara, and one south, Isaac. I decide to send a few units to take out Sophara since it's a dead end. It's guarded by a nameless soldier, which is easy to take out with the combined effort of Serlis, Delmud, and Lester. After the keep is siezed, no real important scenes play, just one showing that the Isaacian townsfolk support Serlis and want to see Dannan's rule ended.
However, it was more meaningful than I thought. Back with the group, Serlis tells Julia that he apparently found an Aura spell for her to use. She says it seems familiar. HMMMMMM. Anyways, it's nice that she will be able to both heal and deal, and Aura is a pretty awesome spell. At this point, I'm going with the assumption that she's Deirdre's daughter...or clone. Serlis also have a friendly chat with Lana, which I will now start assuming is the start of a love interest. How boring! Oh well. Castle Isaac is also estatic that Serlis is finally taking action and overthrowing the illigetimate rule of Dannan.
I move all my units towards the last castle (Ganeish something?). I'm very surprised that there are no stationary enemies in the way. It sort of feels as if the map is incomplete. Oh well, I'm not complaining. To further put the map out on a whimper, the boss has absolutely no range damage, which basically means I've already won. My two weakest units at this point are Arthur and Julia, so I set up both to take shots at the boss. It spend a few turns pew pewing away and eventually the boss is very weak. I don't really intentionally "boss abuse" him, but both casters were pretty inaccurate so it took a few goes to get all the appropriate hits to land. At least Lana got some exp topping off the two casters after a few level ups.
Once Dannan was really weak, I decided to add to the narrative flair by allowing Johan to get the final blow. So now he's killed his brother and his father in the name of love for a girl who doesn't love him back. I think he's the most mentally unstable party member I've had, haha. Levin goes off on a plot bonanza at this point. He mentioned a brother Julius, who I don't know at this point. He also suggests something that I originally inferred, that Alvis seemingly wanted to rule with at least some degree of compassion but eventually things just got worse and worse. He goes off on explaining how it is basically Serlis' destiny to restore order, and even name drops the Tyrfing itself. These guys seem pretty obsessed with their Holy Weapons, huh?
We learn that Fin is alive, along with the Prince Leif, Cuan's other child. I assume Altenna is still missing. Fin looks like he's barely aged a day, apparently they've got a fountain of youth hiding somewhere in Lenster. We are then immediately introduced to a hundred more names. I'll try to keep it straight: We learn of King Blume, who is Reptor's son that was assumingly gifted the province by Alvis. We also learn of Cutozov, who I assume is just a rather unimportant Dark Sect guy, as well as Bramsel and Jabarro, who seem to be some sort of hired Mercenary and Merchant, respectively. Basically I think these guys are just miniboss castle guardians. We also learn of General Liza, who is a palette swap of Ida so the idea that either of them were ever important is immediately thrown out. However, We also learn of Blume's niece Tiinny as well some guy named Ishtor who are other characters at play. If I've kept my mental family ties intact, I guess Tinny is somehow related to Tiltyu and thus Arthur? Maybe she is the missing sister. I could have missed a generation or gotten something confused. No hints as to the missing brother of Femina, however.
We also see a girl named Nanna with the Lenster folk, who I'd guess is Lachesis' daughter, making her Delmud's brother, right? Speaking of Lachesis, reminds me that Eltshan still his a child that has yet to be introduced (I think). Menwhile, Blume orders some other generic bad guy to deal with either the Lenster peeps or the approaching rebel force from Isaac, I forget which.
If that wasn't enough factions to keep straight, we also finally see Shanan! We learn that he was raiding a place called the Yied Shrine along with a thief named Patty, but not working together. She seems to be a brand new character, I like her design though. Shanan seems to also having taken up the family business of being a swordmaster. Meanwhile, Cutozov talks to some other Dark Sect guy who is furious that they allowed Shanan and Patty to steal the Balmung from the shrine. Levin suggests to Serlis that control of the shrine is important, though at this point neither are aware of the burglary having taken place.
So Serlis, Leif, and Shanan are the three major players at this point in the story, and I feel the circumstances are aligned where they are all about to meet.
killer_clank
Member
no doesn't work for Americans
Regulus Tera
Romanes Eunt Domus
The Mexican female archery team went through to quarterfinals. Fuck yeah. 
Cool, had no idea.
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