Chapter 8: Cai Is Strong Enough. The Team Is Not.

The last qualifier was the first time my "make Cai powerful" plan showed its limit.

Cai did what I wanted him to do.

The rest of the army did not.

I lost too many units during the fight, and when I finally opened the roster screens instead of thinking about the team impressionistically, the reason was obvious.

Cai is level 25.

Majide is 15.

Noctula and Ultand are 17. Nydine is 18. Yang Jie is 19.

Even the stronger middle of the roster is only around 20-21.

The numbers make the same point. Cai is sitting at 38 Atk, 114 Hit and 20 Attack Speed. Majide has an enormous 36 Atk, but only 79 Hit and 1 Attack Speed.

So the next solution is not another stronger weapon for Cai.

It is not another axe for Majide either.

It is a team.

The new goal

Chapter 8 gives me a huge Free Time window. At the current checkpoint it is 7/29 at 18:10 with 135 Turns left, and I have already finished this week's activities.

That is enough time to do something I actually enjoy: deliberately turn the whole roster into a powerful army.

My floor for a unit I expect to deploy is about level 24-25.

The people I actually want to rely on should be closer to 27-30.

Cai can keep gaining levels naturally, but I am no longer using him as the default answer to every enemy.

No more axes

Majide's screen finally made this decision easy.

36 Attack. 79 Hit. 1 AS.

Power is not his shortage.

The Iron Axe stays. The shield stays off. I am not spending Chapter 8 gold on another axe just because a shop has a more impressive one.

He gets levels, safe finishing blows and Combat Auto-Activity time. If those things do not make him reliable enough by the main match, then the correct answer is to bench him for that battle rather than buy another heavy weapon.

Nydine gets the same constraint from the other direction. She is an Ornius Rider with Spear D already available. Instead of buying her a better axe, I can put an Iron Spear in her hands and let the mounted build become lighter and more accurate.

What this chapter is for

The current combat quests are not chores now. They are training maps.

Huge, Hairy Beasts can level the weak half while Peter does the job he was built to do.

Bringing Peace can level the casters and pay enough gold to fund the weapon shopping.

Purloined Spellcaster's Tools is a place for Ultand to stop being the level-17 caster who never catches up.

Giant fights can eventually solve Goliath and EXP at the same time.

And every Sunday I come back, do the weekly routine, then leave again.

This is the version of overleveling I actually meant all along: not one hero walking into the next match ten levels over everyone else, but a whole team that feels intentionally trained.