NTNP

I personally felt that the Black Knight had fully intended to fight his former master- and if that meant death, he would accept it. However, the line "Is that it? No challenge, no resistance" always gave me the thought that he didn't think that would be the killing blow. I would imagine that the Black Knight had fully expected Greil to counter, parry or something- to keep the battle going, until some final "do or die" moment. But instead, after only a few glancing slashes meant to poke and prod an experienced foe, one connected and killed him. Sure the attacks were unquestionably meant to be fatal, and he probably expected after fighting his master to both of their full ability to strike a final blow and then investigate the location of the medallion, his main goal was the fight. He wanted to experience the thrill he had imagined for years, fully knowing what it could potentially mean. So to me, Zelgius intended for this fight to be their final confrontation. The way I think he wanted it to go was something like this. If Greil would have been defeated and lived, Zelgius likely wouldn't have delivered a final blow just to keep his identity a secret or to feed his ego that way. He probably would have demanded to be acknowledged as stronger, and in return, be told the location of the medallion. He would have been happy to have lived up to his fantasies, been praised one last time by his master and then went back to the role he chose for himself fulfilling both parts of his mission- personal and professional. Of course, reality didn't work that way and then Greil died in the least ideal way. To him, it would have been like two pro-boxers who spent months preparing for their championship fight- and in the first round, one of the boxers goes in for a jab, taps the other guy's nose knocking him off balance ever so slightly- only for him to slip on a wet spot on the mat, fall face first into the the pole and knock himself out on it. Sure the first guy becomes the champion, but it sure doesn't feel like it- not to the audience, and not to the fighter either.

I would also suggest focusing on just a single band and using it on a character that will have a lot of level ups with you. Ike, Boyd, Soren, Rhys, Jill, Zihark, and Marcia would be the ones I would focus on while leaving the knight's ward to be traded around for your knights and cavaliers. Soren and Rhys could both benefit from Mage band, or a speed band (thief perhaps) for Rhys. Jill and Marcia both want strength and defense boosting until full guard becomes available, at which point they will cease caring. That just leaves Ike and Zihark, whom would both like the fighter, knight or soldier bands for extra DEF and STR much like your fliers would. Only Boyd really cares much about speed and accuracy, so the mymridon or pegasus band would be a good choice for him. Although, to be honest, unless you are playing on fixed mode and also using certain weapons to increase the chances of getting a particular level up either through the BEXP system or the first turn on a map, there isn't going to be much of an effect period. But, it is rare that you can't afford one less item slot in FE9 so go for it. For your late joiners, I would focus on whatever happens to be around. Oh and if this is your first playthrough or you haven't tried her- include Tanith in your endgame as a filler unit on maps where you have an extra slot. She will fit in perfect and create a support square with Oscar, Kieran and Marcia if you are in to that sort of thing.

So has there been any progress toward getting this play through up and running again?

Could you hack in the various scrolls associated with each character into the inventory and just use them that way? Realistically adding a few items using a little coding might be easier to accommodate than all the editing and modifying that keeping alive certain units would require.

I don't see any reason why not to remove the rule about using skills obtained from the regular characters. Honestly, trading around skills is a big part of FE10 and you might as well make the best use of them as you can given the limitations you are already placing on yourself. Plus it'll make it more interesting seeing how your strategies could become more complex by including traded skills into the equation.

It's nice seeing these playthroughs back in action again, however I have a request. Can you switch views before you start promoting people so we can see each character's in game models in action during one of the upcoming chapters? I understand that Nolan/Pugo won't be present but it would be interesting seeing the other bosses in action at some point and seeing them dueling it out with their former comrades?

Overall, I have to say this was a pretty interesting run that I enjoyed watching considerably. Great job Walhart, I look forward to seeing whatever project you start next.

I guess the real question is, what class are you intending to have Morgan end up as? If you intend for both to be physical classes in the end, then a +str, -mag would likely be the best bet. But if you want them to both go through a few magic classes (beyond just tactician) then that's a different story.

I can see your problem here. All of these units are very good, however I think that the Swordmaster is the best option for you at the moment. While you do have an overwhelming number of swordmasters right now, he has the best attributes of the units provided and having a high speed option that can double (and quad with the brave sword) is likely better than anything else you'll recieve at the moment.

I'd suggest you play this on Erika's route for one reason, you can get access to more magic users at a faster rate. On Erika's route, you can get Saleh earlier, get Ewan at the same time and you also get Knoll at the same time this way. So basically you get a promoted Sage in Ch.12 instead of Ch.15 with Erika route and the other two still get recruited at the same time. So essentially you get to have one more party member earlier on and overall it fits your playthrough a little better as well.

Just for reference sake, now that you have started using skills on your characters maybe you could update the character list again stating who got which skills?

While increasing the difficulty of enemy units is one way of increasing the difficulty of a game, it isn't the only one. What if we looked at the map and objectives present and see if we couldn't increase the difficulty of those to help increase the challenge level a bit. They could inclde new and multiple objectives to increase the versitility and challenge of maps to go beyond "rout", "sieze", "kill the boss" and "survive X-turns" and add new options for players. Also providing the option to save at any time or using check points might be a good option as well, to limit the annoyance factor associated with longer or more objective heavy maps. Additionally, perhaps this could be done incrementally along with the increase in difficulty of enemies based on what mode you choose. Like say on Easy Mode, a map's only objective might be "Defeat the Boss." On Normal Mode, you could have it become "Defeat the Boss and liberate/save two towns" to increase the challenge level of the map. Lastly on Hard Mode (along with further strengthened enemies as described thus far) also include an objective such as "Protect 2/4 citizens on the map" or "secure safe passage for refugees." Of course, these objectives could still be present on easier modes but offer them as optional objectives that just provide bonuses to the player for completing like bonus money or items. Thus far the only real area of consideration seems to be buffing the enemy units but map design and objectives should also be considered if you want a more challenging Fire Emblem.

Oh well, it happens. Hopefully there won't be any additional issues in the recording and uploading of this LP.

Reasonably, with one or two fliers (for maps such as the cliffs or Ena's map) are going to allow for a lot of variability in how you accomplish objectives in the game. Having more than two probably isn't neccesary though so either both wyverns or a wyvern+pegasus would be a good choice. Otherwise, your team should be fine as you have it planned out. Plus since you only have a single "promotion" worthy character left in the form of the pegasus/wyvern you recruit in the near future it isn't going to be that big of a deal in that regard.

Paladin or Pegasus, either one would work but the General (while cool looking) isn't going to be that useful and the Halb is replicated a couple times over now. Also another consideration is, are you planning on getting one or more wyvern units in the next couple of chapters? If you are, skipping the Pegasus is fine. But if you aren't going to or aren't sure, then I'd recruit the Pegasus.