Chapter XVIII, Part I: Of Fire and Blood is a chapter in Triangle Strategy.
Story[]
House Wolffort must do battle on three fronts if their plan is to succeed. They split their forces into three and put their plan into motion. Benedict remains within the Wolffort demesne to drive back the encroaching Hyzantian army and claim victory over Exharme Marcial.
Script[]
See: Chapter XVIII, Part I: Of Fire and Blood/Script
Battle[]
Benedict defends House Wolffort and the Great Norzelian Mines from an Hyzantian attack.
Terrain and strategy[]
There will be three waves of reinforcements coming in for this fight as Hyzantian soldiers are defeated. Each of these comes in two groups, generally with four or five soldiers. Exharme doesn't seem to move forward until the second wave of reinforcements arrive.
Being so badly outnumbered, it's useful to bait as many enemies into the traps as possible before setting them out, ideally at least five each. The farthest trap is an exception since it's difficult to lure enemies into it; the best case is probably setting it early and catching the three units who start in it. It may not be worth risking units that far forward to set off the trap, though, as the other traps require baiting the enemy in the direction of the wall.
Usually, a number of enemies will advance into the larger lower trap easily enough, so it's wise to begin by moving to be ready to set that off quickly. Forming up on the middle level helps baits enemies into the smaller middle trap, ideally including Exharme, who falls to the traps as easily as his soldiers. Once the middle trap is set off, move back up the stairs to form up at the upper level and even on the stairs themselves. Use the top trap to take out soldiers advancing from the upper level once there are a number of them in the area of effect, and then use the bottleneck of the stairs to carefully finish off the rest without too much risk. Take special care to avoid losses in this fight, as everyone will likely be needed for the final mop-up.
Piccoletta's Decoy really shines in this fight as it can be left safely in the trap's area of effect to bait enemies in. Erador Ballentine and Lionel Khapita's relative durability and ability to give enemies the Fury status also makes them very helpful in this fight.
If the player manages to completely avoid using traps during this battle, the ending will be slightly different.
One way to do a trap-less clear is to have Jens set ladders on the two houses behind the starting area, then moving the entire army onto their rooftops. Thereafter, durable units can be placed behind the ladders to block them and invalidate every single melee enemy on the map, while bow users are used to chip enemy mages/healers/archers to death slowly, before turning their attention on the sea of helpless melee units.