Well ladies and gentlemen you all knew that a Thracia map was going to make it on here. Today I’ll be looking at Chapter 17 of the A route. This is a fun map and I’ll show you why:
- Anti-Turtle Incentives: This map is a poster child for anti-turtling. There several things that are done here to keep the player on their toes.
The first thing this map does is have a dark mage with a Warp staff on a cliff. Why is this important? Well for starters if you don’t deal with him he’ll be warping dark mages at you. The second reason this is important has to do with the Capture system. As a friendly reminder whenever an enemy shows up with valuable items or weapons the capture system more or less gives the player the opportunity to take those items for themselves. This means that if the player plays fast enough they not only neutralize the dark mage boss’s ability to warp dark mages at them, but they also get a Warp staff and a Fortify out of the deal. As far as I am aware there are three ways to capture this dark mage boss and obtain the Warp and Fortify staff before this boss has the chance to use them. I’ve tried 2 of the 3 ways and Model Omega mentions a third way (which is easier) of getting the Warp and Fortify staves.
The second way this game discourages turtling is that there are four houses that get threatened by enemy brigands. These brigands start spawning on Turn 3 and they spawn pretty close to these houses and there will be one brigand who will continuously spawn from turns 3 - 8. Better move fast.
The third way this map discourages turtling though is one of the greatest anti-turtle measures I can think of in the series. On Turn 10 a dude named Cyas shows up and orders the bad guys to attack. At this point in the chapter a three point bridge magically appears and the Armor Knight army in the bottom right hand corner comes charging at you. This wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t for the fact that a Mage Knight army magically shows up two turns later behind the player (with an extra boss to boot) packing Thoron tomes. Also, the Pegasus Knight army stationed near the Dark Mages will also come charging at you. Oh and before I forget you get even more Dark Mages who will spawn from an area of the map that you can’t get to who will also be making your life an absolute nightmare.
So basically, you’ll have three armies charging at you from different directions, each getting a + 30 % boost in avoid and accuracy all thanks to Cyas’s 10 star leadership bonus. Speaking of Cyas he has a Sleep staff. In Thracia 776 status staves have infinite range and basically last for the entire map so basically Cyas can put just about any unit in the player’s army to sleep and unless you’ve a Restore staff on you, you’ll be staying that way until you beat the map. Cyas will eventually leave on Turn 15 so you’ll only have to worry about him staying there for 5 turns, but holy crap does he make life difficult for you!
Multiple Paths Approach: There are two primary paths to take in this chapter. Your fliers can drop off certain units to the north and then there’s the regular path through the middle. There’s a bridge way up to the north that you can take although you’ll have to deal with ballista should you choose to go through that path. Once the three point bridge shows up you’ll have another path to the throne through the south. The only problem here is that you’ll have an army of Armor Knights to deal with. Overall, this chapter gives you multiple routes to choose.
Terrain / Enemy Positioning: Something that I enjoy about the enemy positioning here are the positioning of the Pegasus Knight army. They’re stationed right above the Dark Mages, which will make your path towards capturing the Dark Mage boss difficult since moving towards him means that you’ll have to deal with them too. If you want to bypass the Dark Mages and head towards the northern villages you’ll still have to deal with the Pegasus Knights since they’re right next to said village too.
The Dark Mages are situated on a cliff which means that you’re basically getting to and from that point with a flier. This makes things just a little more difficult since only a small number of units in the player’s army are fliers.
Forest tiles are placed so as to hinder the player’s movement in reaching towards the villages. There are ballista placed near the castle ready to snipe at the player in case the player goes through the bridge at the top of the map. The three point bridge that appears near the Armor Knights not only opens up another path, but is placed so close to the Armor Knights that it will be hard to defend since you’ll need three units and it’ll be easier for the Armor Knight to get within attacking range. Also, watch out for the bishops with ballistic siege tomes near the throne.
Additional Side Objectives: There are two possible new units to recruit in this chapter. The first one can be recruited by visiting that church near the Dark Mages. That’s how you get Sara. For those of you who don’t remember I ranked Sara as the greatest light mage in the series. I still stand by that assessment and as an interesting note, she’s also one of the best Est’s in the series too. The point is, she’s powerful and totally worth taking the extra time to recruit. After she’s recruited she’ll be in danger from not only the Dark Mages, but also the Pegasus Knight army so you’ll need to have a plan to get her out of there as soon as she’s recruited.
Speaking of the Pegasus Knight army the second new possible unit is Misha. Misha’s not quite as powerful as Sara, but she’s still useful. Misha’s recruitment is trickier than Sara’s. First you have to talk to her with Karin. Then after that you have to put Misha to sleep and then have her captured for the entire level. Considering the fact that Misha is surrounded by Pegasus Knights who will most likely double attack any unit that captures Misha, so you’ll need to think about how to go about doing that.
Overall Thoughts: I love it when maps give the player a lot of things to do. Maps like that never get old and this is a prime example of that. The enemies are well positioned and the map has plenty of things to keep the player on their toes. This is but one of many reasons why I consider Thracia’s map design to be legendary.
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