Fire Emblem Wiki
Register
Advertisement
Fire Emblem Wiki

“Leaving the forest behind them, the Liberation Army finally reached the southern gates of Leonster. Yet an arduous task awaited them: the gates stood atop high cliffs, and were defended by vast numbers of ballistae. It was painfully clear that seizing the gates would be anything but simple...”
—Opening Narration

The First Rain of May is Chapter 17B of Fire Emblem: Thracia 776.

Strategy[]

Secret Book (Artwork)
Subjective: The following part of this article is based upon the editor's personal experiences and opinions, and therefore may not be applicable for all readers.
  • The Bragi Scroll in this chapter can only be stolen, so it is recommended that you bring a Thief with more than 15 speed.

This chapter is not particularly difficult, but the ballistae can make it drag much longer than it otherwise would have taken. There are only a few enemies you actually need to engage and none provide too much of a challenge. The Priests with Silence staves will also likely be a non-issue as their low magic prevents them from silencing any but your lowest level mages. The Snipers will do somewhat high damage with their Silver Bows, but are otherwise simple to deal with. Once they and the Armor Knights are dispatched, you will have to start dealing with the ballistae. There are two ways to go about this: draining them regularly or using civilians to distract them.

The latter can be done by visiting one of the red houses in the center part of the map with Leif. The enemies around the houses should pose little threat. The villagers will offer to use themselves as bait to draw the ballista fire while your army attacks the boss. This is not recommended as you will get a Knight Crest at the end of the chapter if you refuse their offer, or if you seize the throne without visit the houses (or on the nearly impossible chance that they all survive). Draining the ballistae normally is not particularly difficult anyway. Like usual, place Leif in range of one or two ballistae while healing him when necessary, then move on to the next. This can be a good chance to train Sara if you use mounted units and rescue chains to make sure she never ends a turn within their range. Once you have dealt with all of them, you can move on to the bosses.

There are also two ways to approach the end of the chapter as well. If you use a flying unit to reach the lower left house, you can pay a man 20,000 gold to open the gate in front of Amalda's platoon. It is not at all necessary, but you can if you have the money ready. Otherwise, you can just enter from the left side and Amalda will open the door and rush her troops over to you. You cannot recruit her because you chose the B route so your only option is to fight her. She is not particularly difficult, but be sure to steal her Bragi Scroll before you either kill or capture her. The other boss, Palman, is incredibly easy if you have any magic units since he cannot move and only has one range. If you do not, Armorslayers and criticals can also take him down. He has nothing worthwhile in his inventory so there is no reason to capture him. Once the bosses are defeated there is little else to do in the chapter but shop and kill the remaining ballistae for EXP. Be sure to grab the two Silence staves before you move on.

Advertisement