Historically, Joan D'Arc turned the tide of the losing French in the 100 Years War when she lifted the siege of Orleans. Will she do so in this game?
We march north to Orleans and see guards patrolling the area. I thought a siege would need more people than this. Jeanne is ready to rush headlong into battle, but Giles stops her. Well, a friend of Giles. Jeanne runs right into the stout body of a lionman. Which reminds me, there were beast men in that opening cinematic about the Demon War. I didn't realize what side they were on until now, and I guess humans and beastmen are cool with each other. Anyway, the lion's name is La Hire, and he speaks in the third person. Hiding behind a tree is the dogman, "Beast Warrior." He tries to tell everyone his name, but he's shy, and Jeanne is too into lifting this siege to care.
From here, the battle begins, and all we have to do is get Jeanne to the door on the otherside of the river. You don't have to kill everyone, but your turns are limited again, so make haste. I've forgotten the limit and how many I took. I went north and crossed the river near the wall. The fishmen stayed at the bottom for a few turns, so I think this was a wise choice. Crossing the river takes about three turns, so keep your team together. Once the fishmen got close, I had Jeanne transform and rush the gate. Some of our backlines were looking scruffy, so this needed to end. She killed the priestess and tried to take out the swordsmen in her way. I find it odd that they totally ignored her to walk as far as they could to gang up on Giles. Sadly, La Hire kinda sucks. His accuracy is too low to be useful, and he doesn't have a massive HP or defense pool.
Despite leaving so many alive, we've lifted the siege! The townspeople of Orleans are there to meet us with cheers and confetti! After the revelry, we (the camera) cut to an English tent. Talbot is there to insult another English general, whose name I didn't get because he didn't stick up for himself. There were several scenes between the two of them tonight, and they were all the same. Back to Jeanne, the nobles are still unsure this maiden can lead them, but they're at least ready to see if she can. We learn that Orleans is surrounded by three strategic locations, all held by the English. La Hire thinks we should rush the largest first, but Jeanne decides to take them one by one in order of least defended. We prepare for the morning and hit the sack. But we're awoken by Roger after sunrise. Some of the nobles are already at the Bastille, attacking it. The arrogant nobles didn't think they should wait on this crazy peasant lady, so they went ahead. Everyone rushes out, except for the sleeping Liana, who does catch up for the battle. It is this scene where "Beast Warrior" says he's ready to die for France. Jeanne, though, wants him to live. We also learn his name is Rufus here.
When we arrive at the Bastille of St. Loup, the fighting is in full force. We see Giles, who says he's gotten here himself. La Hire takes the blame for starting the fight early, but it is the nobles who are leading this assault. And they're doing poorly! The French are getting picked off by archers, so it's up to us to save them!
There are not as many archers as I expected. Take out the force at the front, then wait for their backup to arrive. There are three archers, and they can hit you in the courtyard, so stay outside the gates until you're ready. The map gives you the option to take a side route, but there's only the one staircase to the upper levels. Watch out for the swordmaster, who's a tricky kill. He can "counter" your attacks, which means he can stop you from attacking him by striking first. It's a bit cheap this early in the game... When we win, our forces will be running around with excitement. La Hire is shooting off cannons from the spire in the middle, which should have been Jeanne's role. But she's chill, so it's cool. We'll get another transformation gem for Jeanne after this.
The next location is the Bastille of Augustins. and it's after some anime. The whole army is trying to climb siege towers and ladders to scale the walls, and it's going as well they do. Jeanne is trying to encourage the knights, who are starting to come around to her, from a siege ladder. She's the flag bearer, but she wants to do more. She recalls a previous conversation where the nobles didn't trust her. What might be worse is her friends weren't entirely behind her. Jeanne's a very aggressive leader. Probably too much so. Giles or Roger want her to slow down and be less gung-ho about this. Returning to the present, Jeanne climbs on the siege tower and becomes even more boisterous. Sadly, she's forgotten all about the adversary. While she's cheering on her troops, Talbot shoots in the back with an arrow.
Roger is carrying the injured Pucelle into the medical tent, but it's not looking for her. La Hire brings in the physician, but he says she should be moved to a safer location, of which none exists. As if by possession, Roger brings his hand over Jeanne's body, and a strange dark poof billows from it. It's magic! He does this a few times before he collapses to his knees. We cut to Giles in the strategy tent with the rest of our team. He informs them that Jeanne is likely to die. Towards the end, though, walks in a perfectly fine crazy girl. There isn't even a scar, and it's all thanks to Roger. At some point tonight, Rodger and Giles had an argument about what Jeanne meant to them. Rodger is always worried about her and thinks Giles is pushing her too much. He goes so far as to assume Giles sees us as pawns for his war. In response, Giles accepts that he is the pawn in Jeanne's war. Or at least her God's war. Before we return to the Augustine, Rodger admits he's too tired and weak after what he did to fight. He tells Liana that he doesn't even know what he did. Because of that, he's sitting this battle out. Out of friendship and concern, Liana also stays back.
Colet is mandatory for this battle as he has a special skill. He can construct ladders and bridges to give us access to the other areas of the wall. The goal here is to kill Talbot for the third time. I had Colet build a second ladder to the left of the first one, and I kept all my men on the left side of the man. This stayed the mass on the right away from us, and the priestesses stayed away, for some reason. We can knock down the wall before us, but climbing is faster. We can also guide a character to the lever, but it's a waste of a turn. Once Talbot gets close to us, go after him. He's no joke, and you'll need to focus on him. I brought in La Hire and Marcel for this battle. Marcel can take decent potshots from afar, but the lionman kinda just stood there. This is the last time I'll be using him. Jeanne's new transformation can ruin our lich enemy.
Roger and Liana are still alone, and Liana lets it be known that she knows Roger is in love with Jeanne. I sense a love triangle forming with a number of interesting twists, but the two don't get much time to talk about it. Giles returns to the room, and Roger gets mad. Did Giles abandon Jeanne? Nope, she's celebrating her victory at the fort, and Giles only returned...for...reasons... Everyone heads to Augustine. Night has fallen, and Jeanne has won over the nobles who hated her a few hours ago. But we're not safe. The immortal Talbot has somehow scaled the walls of the fort he lost along with a number of his human troops. We now have to kill him for the fourth time in a very tough fight.
We need to kill all enemies and not just Talbot. Six are outside the walls, but there's a handful inside. I should have grouped everyone up on the left side, but I was worried an enemy could open the gates with the lever. Besides the immortal John, the archer beside him is a menace. But I suggest you take out the wizard on the outside asap. He can use an AoE spell that deals over 50 damage. Not fun... There's a priestess besides him, so you gotta take him out in one round. Marcel from the ramparts and a magic attack did the job. Have Jeanne and Giles transform to kill Talbot, hopefully before the gate is destroyed. Roger and Liana were slain, and Giles nearly died, but I managed to win in 11/15 turns. Talbot will run away again, and Jeanne will chase after him. Not to kill him for a fifth time, no, but to ask him a question. He mentioned something mysterious that I didn't pay attention to because I don't pay attention to men who's died multiple times. Talbot doesn't answer, though, and we let him return to the English.
I'm upset at this, so I didn't pay attention to what was said afterwards. I don't think it matters, and the scene that follows is what introduces us to skill crafting. Cuisses, the toad, can combine two skill stones to form something stronger, but I'll experiment with that and the final siege of Orleans...
...tomorrow.
How many times am I gonna kill this nerd? It's ruining the enjoyment of this game! Surely there are other English generals in the area? Hell, make some up! Beastmen are okay, but random leaders are off limits?
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