- Main article: Crimea Marches/Script
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Beginning log
Western Begnion is home to a great forest. As the first snow of the season falls, the newly commissioned General Ike takes control of the Crimean Liberation Army. He leads it toward the knife-edged mountains that mark the border between Begnion and Daein. At one time these woods were home to the kingdom of Serenes and ruled by the heron clan of the bird tribes. Following the Serenes Massacre, the forest lost its color and vitality. Some said it was the sorrow of the goddess made real. For twenty long years, the devout citizens of Begnion trembled in shame and loathing over the crime they had committed. The Begnion Empress, Apostle Sanaki, stepped forward as representative of her countrymen. Kneeling before the surviving heron prince and princess, she gave voice to the apology of her people. She spoke not as one nation to another but as neighbors on the same continent. The massacre was unforgivable. However, hatred breeds hatred, and if the cycle of grief and anger is not broken, it will continue for time without end. It was with this in mind that the herons accepted the apostle's apology. And so it was that Serenes Forest was returned to its former glory. Afterward as payment for Ike's service, Princess Elincia gained the services of a regiment of Begnion army regulars. Though of common birth Ike receives peerage from the princess and is given command of the army.
| This section details unofficial strategies that may help with completion of the chapter. This may not work for everybody.
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Before the battle preparations menu, the player will be presented with a selectable option whether or not to allow Reyson to accompany Ike and the rest of the army. Should the player refuse his request, they would be rewarded with the Renewal skill scroll. However, doing so will deny the player of three versatile units and will prevent the player from potentially obtaining the Knight Ring in the next chapter. Since Reyson's utility is extremely valuable and the two hawk laguz, Janaff and Ulki, are strong units in their own right, it is not recommended to refuse and pass up Reyson's request.
This chapter introduces a unit who will be filling in as the Dancer unit in Path of Radiance: the heron laguz, Reyson. While he is incapable of performing any offense against enemy units, he can instead provide support for his allies with his galdrar abilities, allowing him to refresh allied units, which grants them another action during the current turn. However, his defensive stats (barring an acceptable resistance) are very low. Since Reyson is both a flying unit and a laguz, this means he is also vulnerable to bows, wind magic, and anti-laguz weapons (such as the Laguzslayer), further worsening his frail defense. As such, this necessitates the need to keep him out of range of enemy units whenever possible.
This chapter also presents what is widely considered to be among one of the most complex requirements to recruit a unit throughout the entire Fire Emblem series: rerecruiting Shinon back to the player's party. In order to fulfill the requirements to have him join the player's army starting the next chapter, it is mandatory for the player to field Rolf and have him talk to Shinon. However, this alone is not enough to convince him to change sides. Afterwards, the other condition required to recruit Shinon is to have Ike defeat him in combat (as in, reduce his HP to zero), which is contradictory to the standard method of recruiting enemy units to the player's army throughout the Fire Emblem series. Should the player fulfill both conditions, a cutscene will play after all enemy units on the map have been routed, showing Shinon's survival and subsequent recruitment into Ike's forces.
While almost every enemy unit recruitments throughout the Fire Emblem series have in-game hints (usually presented in the form of cutscenes) to help aid players in recruiting enemy units during their joining chapter (ie. recruiting Rutger in chapter 4 of The Binding Blade requires Clarine to talk to him, which is hinted to the player based on their prior interaction during a cutscene mid-chapter), the only hints you can get to rerecruit Shinon are extremely subtle blink-and-you-miss-it details that are only present around the beginning of the game: Shinon is the one who taught Rolf archery, despite the latter having claimed he was self-taught back in chapter 9; the two can also be seen standing next to each other during the beginning cutscene in chapters 4 and 5. You also need to pick up the fact that Shinon strongly resents Ike, to the point that he left the Greil Mercenaries after Ike becomes the new commander after their original leader had been killed at the end of chapter 7.
