Next Chapter: Chapter 6 - Change of Forcas Hello and welcome back to our Tactics Ogre campaign. I've changed format yet again, so please enjoy! I've switched to an emulator that can actually save/load, so now I can record videos of battles. I didn't get to this until the fourth battle in this episode, so that's it for this one. However, I'll be recording videos of the rest of the battles. After blamed for what happened at Baramus, Denim and friends went into hiding. Kachua has the great idea to meet with Lans to clear their names, so the gang heads off from Ashton City. Before they can leave, they are confronted by the Liberation Army, lead by an archer named Aloser. Yes...Aloser. Denim captures her and vows to prove he is a good man or she could take his life afterward. They fight through Walstanians and Gargastanis alike to get to Tanmas Hill, where Lans is supposed to be. It turns out it's a trap and Vice shows up, taunting Aloser before he reveals the truth. After thwarting Vice's plans to bore me to death with his insane murder-rambling, he runs away. Lans is nowhere to be seen. The Army We're still in the same state as before, but with some new weapons from the end of Chapter 1. Things have changed though, the enemy has caught up in level, so we get to see how fatal combat can be. There were a lot of close calls and I expect there to be more as we progress, hopefully we'll get access to heavier armor soon! Unit Spotlight - Beast Tamer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGEigptwPOU I know I know: none of us chose Beast Tamer as our class, but it's still important! Every male fighter is going to spend at least a few levels as a Beast Tamer before reaching their destination and for good reason. Out of all generic classes, they have the best attribute growth. A character that spends several levels in beast tamer will be tougher. I'm making a huge deal out of a whole 1 VIT, but 10 VIT different is big early game. Otherwise, Beast Tamers are the often overlooked class. They have a passive aura that buffs the attack power of all nearby allied L-size beast units, like Cockatrices and Griffons. It's great if you plan on rolling with monsters. Their preferred weapon is the whip, a weapon you don't get until late chapter 2 or early 3. Whips can attack from 2 squares away, but unlike spears, they don't hit 2 units at once. On the flip side, whips are lighter than spears and more powerful. A special character in the game we've seen before, named Ganb, is a class called Beast Master: a souped up Beast Tamer. Our resident Beast Tamers are Josh and Peter, at least before they turn into Dragoons or Terror Knights. Brian - Lizard Man - Water HP 147 MP 0 STR 85 VIT 74 INT 49 MEN 72 AGI 78 DEX 65 LUK 50Every since you switched to a hammer, you've been smacking dudes for high damage. In fact, I haven't seen anyone hit harder than you. You're a little slower than I'd like, but that's usually not a problem when every enemy rushes to us like a kid seeing their daddy for the first time since he "went to the store and will be back soon." Currently you're the one I use to finish battles when things get rough. Don't get cocky, kid, the overall damage for everyone is going to ramp up soon. Sagar - Berserker - Fire HP 137 MP 23 WT 503 STR 79 VIT 76 INT 65 MEN 75 AGI 67 DEX 75 LUK 50 Your performance in the first battle was pitiful, so you traded places with Jon a couple of times. The third and fourth battles weren't so bad, so you're off the hook for now. Just don't let me catch you missing easy swings again. Jon - Berserker - Water HP 136 MP 35 WT 490 STR 70 VIT 67 INT 67 MEN 76 AGI 80 DEX 82 LUK 50 What can I say? Sometimes you're pretty squishy and sometimes you're made of stone. I'll chock it up to the terrain and element system. You went toe to toe with Zapan, the toughest Berserker, for a while, so I'll give you that. Peter - Terror Knight - Earth - Currently Beast Tamer HP 143 MP 30 WT 483 STR 74 VIT 75 INT 68 MEN 76 AGI 93 DEX 82 LUK 50 Your damage is fading, mostly because you still have a short sword equipped, but there aren't better swords. Every time I want you to finish off an enemy, you either don't do enough damage to kill them outright or you're too fast and are the first to strike. I gave you a Slender, which has more reach and damage opportunities than my current equipment, so we'll see how that goes. Josh - Dragoon - Earth - Currently Beast Tamer HP 129 MP 28 WT 494 STR 70 VIT 69 INT 68 MEN 73 AGI 85 DEX 84 LUK 53 Since I need tanks and Gage tends to be our damsel in distress most of the time, I gave you one of the few Chain chest armors I have. You serve your purpose well and need relatively little healing, since you're tougher than the other guy. Your evade is pretty sick too, so your tower does a lot of work. Kay - Witch - Earth HP 130 MP 37 WT 491 STR 69 VIT 63 INT 69 MEN 72 AGI 77 DEX 83 LUK 50 I wanted to use you as our earth support mage, but that Charm spell is too good to pass up. Your hit rate is average 50% on paper, but it varies wildly from battle to battle. Sometimes you can barely sticks on anyone and other times the enemy can't resist you. At any rate, you've been mighty helpful in keeping enemy units out of the battle or fighting for us. I smell crossbows coming, get ready. Logan - Warlock - Fire - Currently Exorcist HP 128 MP 51 WT 504 STR 67 VIT 65 INT 84 MEN 73 AGI 66 DEX 75 LUK 49 You've got another 8-10 levels before you're a Warlock, but until then you've been our main healer. Good thing I brought you, because otherwise a certain Knight would be toast. Having two staves equipped makes your heals big, but ends up weighing you down, making you act less. I've since taken the Life staff off and you've been faster. Unfortunately Exorcists are still slow. Gage - Knight - Fire HP 127 MP 29 WT 500 STR 76 VIT 64 INT 66 MEN 71 AGI 79 DEX 76 LUK 50 Good news, man! You win the Damsel In Distress trophy! I say this because in nearly every battle you've had a close call, I guess we'll need to spend a couple of levels in training as a Beast Tamer, because you're getting clobbered. Special tip: enemy AI prefers to target easier to kill units, so I know something is wrong. This isn't entirely a bad thing, as I can focus heals on you, making you a decent tank that performs its function. Jay - Octopus/Tiamat - Water - Octopus HP 126 MP 0 WT 578 STR 102 VIT 53 INT 39 MEN 89 AGI 43 DEX 44 LUK 51 You're all trained up and ready to go. In fact, you fought a little in Zodo Marsh and took out an enemy Octopus in a lake! Your Eddy special attack hits automatically and turns the enemy in a different direction, with the added benefit of not being counterattacked. I can't deploy you in every level because your stats are garbage on land, but whenever there is water I will call upon you and the strength of the sea. Rob - Golem - - No luck yet, but after cycling the days I figured out that the recruit shop changes every month, so when I get to a place where it's two towns next to each other, I'll flash forward a couple of months and see if I can find you. Dylan - Terror Knight - Wind - Currently Ninja HP 152 MP 25 WT 485 STR 80 VIT 76 INT 67 MEN 79 AGI 81 DEX 80 LUK 50 Zip zap! I run like lightning to the enemy lines, cutting down their mages or putting things to sleep with my handy incubus spell. I find the name of that spell humorous, because that band puts me to sleep. Battle Report Battle 1 - Ashton City This battle is a doozy; the map is difficult to navigate, there are a lot of choke points and the enemy starts out with a height advantage. Not only that, but they have 2 hawk men who can fly over buildings and they also have Aloser, a fairly powerful archer. I take the strategic approach and try to navigate everyone evenly around all lanes, putting the tougher guys in the middle. Things started going south when the hawk man with a bow targeted my squishy guys, forcing me to use my healing resources on them and not the guys on the front line. The enemy witch managed to poison Gage, making it even rougher.  We trapped Aloser between a bush and a building, but she could still fire arrows and the rest of the enemy continued advancing on us, mostly focusing on Gage. I had to put Aloser in a critical status before Gage bit it. So it all ended with no casualties.   A common occurrence in this game is that the enemy leader usually has a level over everyone else, making the objective tough to accomplish, but NOT IN THIS BATTLE. Zapan is a tough cookie and hits like a truck, but we also had the terrain to halt the enemy advancement. Gage, Josh, Velika, and Peter stuck to the left while Brian, Jon, and I went to the right. Denim stayed behind and Jay stuck to water tiles. I got caught up chasing a wizard while Jon and Brian took care of whatever else was there. The guys on the left got caught in a slow battle, while Velika tried charming as many of the enemy as she could. She got a lot of charms in. Charm causes enemies to fight each other, which is useful if you want to bring in some extra damage or just keep a tough guy off your back.  I wanted total annihilation of the enemy, so I had to keep our left flank stationary after they took care of their opponents while I finished off that nasty wizard. Jon had a slug fest with Zapan while I had Peter sprint to the other side of the map to finish off an enemy for the kill count. Eventually Jon brought the pain to Zapan and we were victorious. Deployed: Josh, Sagar, Brian, Gage, Dylan, Peter, Jay, Velika, Logan One thing I never understood about this game is enemy leader Ninjas. It's not that I don't like Ninjas, but when an enemy is a ninja, you can bet that they are brittle. The other problem is that enemies tend to rush into combat, regardless of their own safety, especially enemy leaders. This guy was no exception. Knowing this, I ensured he survived to see his men die beneath my incredible might. They were packing a Golem and Golems are bad news early game; they don't pack a punch, but they can take many. To ensure his slow demise went faster, I had Velika poison him.  One big highlight was the Octo-Battle. The enemy octopus swam to us through the lake, but Jay proved to be the better invertebrate, eddying him to death. Gigas was earth element and Jay is water, who knows why an Octo would be any other element, but this just made Jay's job easier. Everyone got some good swings in, I had to switch some guys' positions due to low health, but there weren't any close calls like before. Genzo decided he was the best around, so he ran in ahead of everyone. He even took a couple of counter attacks, so I had to do the unthinkable: I healed him. I wanted to actually fight the enemy, so he had to live...for now. Tuke the Golem died of poison and the rest fell beneath our blades. Genzo died last, but did not drop his Matou claw. Deployed: Peter, Jon, Sagar, Josh, Brian, Gage, Velika, Logan, Dylan This battle was a little different than the rest. Aloser decided to join us, but the catch was she could die. Gameplay tidbit: Guests in tactics ogre typically carry escape stones, so that they escape the battle when they are about to die, but later in the game they stop carrying these. Many NPCs have varying levels of importance and dying messes with this. Aloser does not carry an escape stone, so she did the logical thing and ran straight toward the enemy army, even though she's an archer. Here's the video, first of many: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Li4ZWMuXwic&feature=youtu.be I apologize for the poor quality, I recorded on fraps. The next videos are better because I started using a different recording software and they're larger. Anyway, back to the battle. Aloser had a great shot on the beast tamer, but instead of running to the safety of our group, she decides she's safer where several enemies can hit her at once. Velika misses an important Charm and everyone else moves up closer. Aloser is immediately stunned, which allows the rest of them to knock her down to a measly 1 HP. Things are looking bad for A Loser. Just when I think I have to restart the battle over again, Kachua manages to get a heal off on her, which snowballs into more heals and she's topped off. After trading some more hits with the enemy and getting a couple of kills, Gage is once again placed in a compromising position and I have to have Brian end the battle with a hard swing to Vice's evil face. How many times do I have to save your ass, Gage? The Story So Far Denim is on the run, because the Duke placed the blame for the Baramus massacre on him. His bounty is 30K goth now and everyone is looking to get a piece of that pie. Kachua suddenly wants Denim to drop all of this and go away with her so they can live out their lives as creepily close brother and sister. This is definitely not important and you should not remember this at all later in the game. Canopus reveals that Lans is supposedly stationed at Tanmas Hill, so they all decided to pack up and head over there in order to get our friendly paladin to help sort things out. They don't get far, in fact you can't even move out of Ashton City before a battle occurs!   The Walsta Liberation Army has cornered Denim, lead by the skilled archer Aloser....that's her name. Her name is Aloser. She thinks Denim is responsible for the massacre and the death of her brother. They exchange pleasantries and square off, even though Denim tries his best to convince her he is not the enemy. She fights valiantly, but loses to Denim, whom she surrenders to. Aloser orders our Hero to kill her, but he's got a better idea: prove to her that he is innocent or he'll allow her to take his life. Hesitant and suspicious, she agrees to be his prisoner.  The fugitives cut through Walstanian mercenaries and Gargastanis, making their way to Tanmas Hill. On the way they run into Mercenary Zapan, who seems to have a crush on Kachua. He's put in his place. After that we encounter Genzo, the unnecessary ninja, whom we also defeat.  They're greeted by gentleman knight Vice, who is now a ninja. He comments on Aloser's relationship with Leonard and reveals the truth: Denim's blame for the massacre was just a coverup and to make Gargastan look bad. Aloser has second thoughts and decides it's a good idea to trust Denim. Vice aloses the battle and tells them it was a trap, he leaked the info about Lans, so now they're up shit creek with nowhere to go.  Who's THIS loser?  Next Chapter: Chapter 6 - Change of Forcas |
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