Chapter was short and overall a good time.
And after some delays we’re back at it.
Another side thing with these dudes, alright.
Here’s our map, doesn’t seem too bad.
Bringing a whole new meaning to mini, eh?
Our boss.
Our new recruit, let’s see if she’s any good.
Alright.
Alright?
Not alright.
At least you won’t let me down, Wayland.
I’ll take it.
Next time…
Chapter 8 done! Commentary soon with: The battle of the Ostriches
On last month’s episode of OCA:
Oh boy, where were we?
At least I know what this is.
We’re besieging a place called Leizpeg. Here’s the journal entry for the chapter:
6th of Jokan,
Three days have passed since our
march on Castle Leizpeg began.
Our manpower has exponentially
increased, reinforced threefold by
Wayland’s company and the combined
powers of Sir Rudolfo and Sir Borgriff.
However, they seem wary of the
Captain’s lack of social class
and rough demeanor, especially
Sir Rudolfo. A saying of my father
comes to mind, “Strength in numbers
without the strength of unity
leads only to greater losses.”
On that note, the reunion between
the Captain and his brother,
although on the outside cordial,
seems somewhat strained.
Perhaps it’s just my speculation,
but the Captain does not seem to
fully approve of his brother’s
decision to fight…
The dudes mentioned here have a bit of an argument afterwards. Our dudes go and make sure that the townspeople have evacuated and that everything is all set for our thief to take out the gate from the inside. I should probably show the gate, shouldn’t I?
On the second turn the thief will pop out of the village on the right, having been prevented from actually opening the gate. We have to visit the village to clear the two gate tiles, although there’s nothing preventing us from flying around.
So there’s some talk hinting about some goons who join us and then a peg swoops in and joins the party. Seems like a good day.
I really hate when you get a flying unit on a map with a bunch of ballistae, though.
First thing we do is grab our new axe bros.
They’re, uh, yeah. Here’s a description of the pair given by a villager:
One of 'em is stoic enough,
but the other’s a real oddball.
Looks and acts mostly like
a savage brute for certain.
But he spent most of his time
doting on the village children.
Even surrounded himself in a
field of small woodland creatures.
Neat.
We just creep forwards. The enemies are barely present on the map. The only annoying thing is that your thief is just in the middle of some goons and you have to just sit and dodge.
We get quite an interesting support conversation here.
Please forgive the lack of screenshots, there really wasn’t anything going on here. Some reinforcements popped up, some ballista bolts were fired, but there wasn’t any thought going into it.
The boss seemed like another one of those you're supposed to sympathize with me dudes.
Not pictured: Wayland nearly losing a fight with a soldier in some dialogue and people telling him that he’s reckless.
Not pictured, some guy named Andrew takes someone named Warren away and gives someone named Borgriff some orders. I’ll admit that I haven’t been paying attention to the intricacies of the story.
Anyway, the orders basically say yep keep going and the tactician decides that the shortest way to the capitol is through the D'ahk Woods.
The D’ahk fucking Woods.
Algimas sums it up well:
And even then, this D’ahk Woods
seems like an ideal hiding spot
for the enemy.
Cut to the bad(?) guys plotting things…
Didn’t get screenshots of this so have a text dump:
[Cortez, the emperor-looking dude, is standing around]
[Enter soldier dude]
Soldier: M-my liege, Leipzig has fallen.
Cortez: What?! Zounds, what can I expect from these men if they cannot even hold a damnable fortress?!
[Enter McDowell, who couldn’t possibly be a nice guy]
McDowell: Fret not yourself, Cortez. I’ve a way to squash this petty uprising.
Cortez: McDowell, have some sense. It’s far too risky for someone of your station.
McDowell: You’ve protected myself and other nobles from the Inquisition’s dark magic hunts, There is no better way for us to show you our thanks.
Cortez: …Perhaps so.
McDowell: We are all ready to die at your hand to prevent the Inquisition from suspecting you further. I can think of no better end.
Cortez: Very well. Then as your king, I order you to crush these rebels.
McDowell: Consider it done, my Liege.
Looks like things are about to get edgy.
Do your shit ree
Dat reeeee
lusq ree
Sorry this took so long! The chapter seemed like a doozy at first until I started playing it and it really wasn’t.
“You gotta be Jokan” is what we’re going to say once we see the map for this chapter
Dark Woods? Nah, D’ahk Woods. Worldbuilding!
See?! The instant you idiots don’t follow my advice, this happens!
Dialogue says “pissed”; portrait says “happy”
The people Wayland is talking about here are people who were apparently part of Algimas’s group before our tactician joined.
me @ the story that I have no hope of understanding for the time being
Most certainly wouldn’t mind terribadly, my dudette!
Hoo boy, this map. Threee-range FoW vision, too! It’s not as bad as it looks, thankfully.
I restarted after remembering I want a thief+torch for this fog and it turns out we have only a single iron sword. I think I’d prefer to just leave her unarmed and not have the speed loss
Let’s try this one more time!
The main surprise here is this guy having a bow
Sorry but I’m not going to let these things sit around in the convoy
(no like really)
Hello there, long-range tome hiding in the fog! If it weren’t Eclipse and therefore of zero consequence I might be annoyed
You just do not want to be used, huh? I should’ve brought Foskey for the free support bonus
There’s a stutter on the map after killing this enemy, which tells me some event flag is probably being played with
Okay this is actually a pretty funny matchup
Know what’s funnier, though?
I’m proud of Meila (heads-up: probably accidentally gonna call her Melia 80547235 times) for accepting the role of dodgetank
So, uh… it turns out this path through the woods really only had two shamans in it.
(a palette for this map would’ve done wonders for the esthetic, even if it were just a brightness increase+contrast decrease. This is supposed to be fog, not darkness, unless it’s a Teodor-style evil fog)
“Central Kingdom”… Wait a second! Ostreich was China all along! Ma Su’s presence is totally vindicated!
Alternate-universe-Karina-from-TLP sure knows how to win my heart with these consistent crits!
Also, TIL this tiny little bit of mountains is enough to be considered a “Peak”. Time for a slight bit of route adjustment on the east side
Fogforcements!
Fine, fine. You get one stab of the communal iron sword
I legitimately thought Martel was an enemy unit and got confused as to why I couldn’t attack him here
Keeping these reaver weapons equipped during the enemy phase was totally on purpose, I swear! Where a good strategist can find no martial challenge, he creates his own!
Algimas tanks a bunch because I moved forward too quickly and didn’t see that swath of enemies in the fog
Guess who I deployed to the absolute wrong side of the map?!?!
!
look it’s Lucius but less pretty
(like I think that’s literally the same unit description, but the scene in which he appears portrays him as more of an uppity zealot???)
Okay, you got me. It’s cute that the monk character carries holy water with him
Nice!
I don’t care if this is a dead end I wanna see stuff
And here’s the boss! Predictably, he’s on the yurt, although it would be kinda fun if he were another attack-in-range unit in the woods given the premise of this chapter. Why does this field-y area with the yurts need to be here, anyway? If not for the fog necessitating it, this map would feel borderline Requiemian in its spaced-out hugeness.
juicy
Now he can use that killer axe!
Now that that particular purple blob is taken care of, my main concern for the chapter is making sure Brendan doesn’t get himself killed
okay maybe not
They’re both pre-SalvCav, but I appreciate this hand axe cav! It has so much more personality than that one that spends 5000 frames holding the axe in the air before throwing it
WE TOLD HIM TO USE AN ECLIPSE TOME AND HE ACTUALLY LANDED A HIT! THE ABSOLUTE MADMAN!!! 
aw. not droppable if you get there in time
Mar “Doubles With a Hand Axe” Tel is here to lay down the law
Gotta love the AI going for the high-res unit who soaks up their damage solely because she can’t counterattack
Is Aceline actually, like, bad bad? I’ve been thinking it was just RNG screwage, but…
I’m not actually using this; I just want to take a peek at what the promotio—
LAME!
Rescue chain time
Wrong way, idiot!
this guy’s not threatening at all and I almost initiated this battle before remembering I hadn’t yet recruited Brendan
I misread “famous” as “fabulous” for a moment and can we please be fabulous instead of famous? thanks
Guess what this boss having Nosferatu means? 
"Yoink. " —Halo announcer
Support…?
No dialogue, but now that we’ve gotten our scent on this mediocre unit, we can’t return her to her nest anymore! Her mother won’t recognise her!
McDowell’s tome is broken; time for him to throw in the McTowell
yes
Foskey’s really winning me over with his dialogue here! Too bad I didn’t use him
Meanwhile, in FE6land…
A bunch of pegasi and one drake? Hi Minerva!
And that’s it! You’d expect Cortez to trail off, but the chapter just kinda ends
It’s so good to see Ma Su again being as unhappy as possible.
