Vanilla Lunatic, 1 Second Seal Each: Playlog

[ConfidenceKBM]

Welcome to my Hardcore Lunatic playlog! The rules:

1. Lunatic and Classic, obviously.

2. No DLC

3. No Spotpass of any kind.

4. No bonus box stages.

5. No Risen.

6. No abuse: No water trick on the prologue, no (intentionally) luring enemies to forts, no heal staff tanking (I will only heal when necessary), I will rout every map except in very special circumstances (e.g Ch. 21 with all the mires, Grima), NO RNG ABUSE, no Olivia dance spam. *pending more as people point them out*

7. ONE second seal per character.

8. Male MU. (since Chrom x MU is too strong)

Why these rules? I previously did a lunatic run with these rules and TWO second seals per character, but I know I can do better.

ONE EXCEPTION: I am going to use Donnell, and he'll need an extra second seal to promote from villager. So technically he gets two, but whatever.

Let's get started!

[spoiler=Prologue]

Seda is born! Asset is speed, flaw is luck. Pretty standard. Some people like to take defense, I was considering putting resistance as the flaw, but this worked out well last time so whatever. I set the birthday to February so we won't get that bonus.

Turn 1: The most important part of this map your first turn. This chapter is easy if you let Fred kill stuff, but I want that juicy exp on MU and Chrom. I move MU into the bottom left corner and trade the bronze sword to Fred. Fred moves right and up to draw in the enemies, and attacks a myrmidon, which will attack Chrom on the enemy turn and Chrom can kill it. (Fred br. sword + Chrom Falchion is exactly enough to kill. coincidence?) Lissa moves two right and down, so that no one can attack her, and leaves the northern barbarian to attack MU. Chrom's starting position allows the myrmidon to attack him, but the barbarian cannot, so that's exactly where I want him. End. The myrm hits Chrom for 10 out of 20, Chrom kills it. Barb hits MU for 13 out of 19, MU hits back for 8 out of 30. The remaining barb and myrm attack Fred and he hits back for 15 against both. The mage moves closer.

Turn 2: Here's how it looks right now:

http://i.imgur.com/KqJ3B0j.jpg?1

(The images are too big to embed in this post, but I will make them smaller in the future so I can just embed them.)

IMO, this is the single best way to open on this map, since Fred doesn't take kills and it doesn't rely on the enemies missing their attacks. The barb and myrm on Fred can actually be in slightly different places even if you open the exact same way, but I tested those cases too and the solutions are the same, just in slightly different positions from what I'm about to do. Fred moves to the bottom left to get the barb in killing range, MU moves 1 to the right and kills the barb, Lissa moves left into the corner and heals MU, Chrom moves down 1 to block off MU from the myrm and uses a vulnerary. End. Myrm suicides against Chrom, barb and mage move closer.

Turn 3: Lissa heals Fred up to 24. But the mage hits Fred for 13, so if I attack on my turn, the mage will kill him on the enemy phase. So I just move him into a blocking position, and then use MU and then Chrom to kill the barb, while also putting the MU in a blocking position so the mage can't get to Chrom. Here's how that looks:

http://i.imgur.com/yOhsvXj.jpg?1

Pretty slick, if I do say so myself. End, mage attacks MU, MU hits back for 4.

Turn 4: Fred his the mage, Lissa heals MU, I put Chrom behind MU for Veteran, MU kills the mage for a level up. +HP/Spd. That's pretty fuckin terrible, but fine. Look at that! We cleared the beginning of the map without using the silver lance, and Fred didn't get any kills. And you can do it too! Fred not getting kills makes it really tough, and it's really tempting to one shot that mage with the silver lance, but as you can see, this is totally manageable.

Now I heal everybody to full, and MU gets the mystery square for 12 exp. Lissa levels up for +HP/Skl. Ugh.

Turn 9: Fred moves to bait in the rest of the enemies by the boss. End. Myrm attacks Fred, everything else gets close.

Turn 10: Here's how it looks, sorry for potato quality:

http://i.imgur.com/nxeRy4O.jpg

Fred kills the mage with his silver lance (I don't have a choice this time), I move lissa to the bridge to give Chrom +10 hit when he moves next to her to kill the myrm with his rapier, since it has better hit than Falchion and I really don't want to miss at this point. Chrom kills the myrm and levels up with +skl/spd/lck/res. Ugh. MU moves next to Chrom and Fred and trades with Fred to make it so Fred has the bronze sword equipped again, and then pairs up with Chrom. *enemy phase* The myrm attacks Fred, a barb attacks Chrom and misses, Chrom crits for the kill, second barb attacks Chrom and hits, Chrom hits back. THAT COULD HAVE GONE SO WRONG. Crits are actually bad sometimes, because if you kill the enemy, it lets a second enemy move onto that square for another attack on you. If that first barb hadn't missed, I would have been SO angry at that crit.

Turn 11: Here's how it looks:

http://i.imgur.com/6QGOMM6.jpg?1

Fred hits the barb, leaving it at 3 health, MU takes the kill with Chrom still attached. End. Myrm attacks MU, Chrom blocks and also dual attacks, the myrm dies. I want to point out that if Chrom had done neither of those things, I'd still be fine. MU is at full health and I could have just killed the myrm on my turn. As it happened, though, they did kill it and MU leveled up with +HP/Mag/Skl/Spd/Res. Much better.

Turn 13: I move closer to the boss.

Turn 14: I let Chrom take the mystery square next to the boss and he gets 13 exp, Lissa heals Fred to full.

Turn 15: Here's how Fred looks against the boss:

http://i.imgur.com/taHyYfc.jpg?1

That 8% chance to crit is basically a guarantee, so that's 21 damage, and then another normal hit on enemy phase would be 28 to kill Fred. That would be bad, and there's just no reason to gamble on that when you don't have to. So I put Fred next to the boss and end. The boss misses, Fred hits.

Turn 16: Time to win. I put Lissa behind Fred for support purposes, and Fred attacks. The boss is now at 8 HP. I pair up MU with Chrom and go to the boss. Chrom has a 94% chance to hit with Falchion, but when you've played as much Fire Emblem as I have, 94% to win after this much work might as well be 15%. I switch to the rapier for a guaranteed kill. Chrom levels up with +HP/Str/Skl/Lck/Def. Cool.

That's the prologue! Like I've said, it can be much easier than how I did it, but not if you want all the exp in MU and Chrom and you want to conserve the silver lance. Fred only took ONE kill! And ONE silver lance charge! That's pretty damn good for this map!

[spoiler=Chapter 1]

Turn 1: The only thing to really worry about on this map is the Hammer guy. I move Fred to aggro the nearby merc and barb with the silver lance equipped, and move the rest of the team close to clean up next turn. The two enemies get to low health against Fred, all the other enemies move closer.

Turn 2: Put Lissa behind MU for extra magic, MU kills barbarian, Chrom pulls Lissa out and drops her nearby, Leave Virion where he is, Fred moves onto the fort and uses a vulnerary, finds Tiki's Tear on the mystery square (oh please let me win this time), put Sully behind Fred. She's a great support at this point in the game, actually. Strength, speed, and defense. The defense from Sully and the fort make it so the hammer barbarian can't one-shot Fred, which is nice. Here's the current map:

Something about the reddish hue of this map makes my phone's camera unhappy. Sorry.

End. Northern (weakened) merc attacks MU and dies, southern merc attacks Fred for 0 damage and dies (thanks to Sully's support strength), hammer guy misses fred, other barbarian hits for 4. Here's the map again:

That was really the only turn that matters.

Turn 3: Chrom kills the southernmost barbarian, Fred one-shots the archer (thanks again, Sully), I put Virion behind MU for Veteran, Lissa heals MU, MU moves to the square above the fort, trades to re-equip Fred with the bronze sword, and kills the last weakened barb for a +Str/spd/lck level up. The boss can go for Chrom or Fred but can't kill them, and the full health barb can go for Fred or MU or Chrom. If both had gone for and hit Chrom, I would have lost, but he prioritizes MU so it works out.

Turn 4: Fred hits barb with bronze sword, Chrom kills barb. MU retreats and drops Virion near Lissa, but I fucked up the positioning so I can't heal MU this turn. End. Boss hits Chrom.

There's no need for the details at this point. It's just a game of keep away as Fred whittles down the boss with his bronze sword. Fred gets a level up for +HP/Skl/Lck/Def/Res. Lissa gets a level up for +HP/Def (T____________T), and Chrom kills the boss for +HP/Str/Skl/Spd/Lck.

That's it. Easy map. Fred got two kills.

Edited April 17, 2014 by ConfidenceKBM

[Czar_Yoshi]

FYI, pretty much anything can be counted as abuse in this game, so you might want to clarify point #6.

This could be interesting, I'll be watching.

[ConfidenceKBM]

FYI, pretty much anything can be counted as abuse in this game, so you might want to clarify point #6.

This could be interesting, I'll be watching.

Fair enough. I added the only example I can think of off the top of my head. What else is there?

Edited April 17, 2014 by ConfidenceKBM

[Czar_Yoshi]

Well, the Water Trick, which feeds every enemy in Prologue except two Myrmidons to Avatar with very high reliability even in Lunatic+, for one. Also breaking weapons, either to train weaklings or get mounds of staff exp. Also skipping half the game with Galeforce/Rescue/Braves (after Cht.12, only Cht.23 and 24 are Route). Resetting for good levelups, Olivia dance spam, etc...

Luring enemies to forts and smacking them over and over doesn't work on Lunatic(+) because of exp decay- stuff gives less damage exp every time you hit it, until you get none per strike. Wexp doesn't go up after a point either.

If Nosfertanking counts as abuse, how about Sol?

Edited April 17, 2014 by Czar_Yoshi

[ConfidenceKBM]

Well, the Water Trick, which feeds every enemy in Prologue except two Myrmidons to Avatar with very high reliability even in Lunatic+, for one. Also breaking weapons, either to train weaklings or get mounds of staff exp. Also skipping half the game with Galeforce/Rescue/Braves (after Cht.12, only Cht.23 and 24 are Route). Resetting for good levelups, Olivia dance spam, etc...

Luring enemies to forts and smacking them over and over doesn't work on Lunatic(+) because of exp decay- stuff gives less damage exp every time you hit it, until you get none per strike. Wexp doesn't go up after a point either.

If Nosfertanking counts as abuse, how about Sol?

I will add the ones you mentioned. I redacted nosferatanking, I don't want to give the wrong idea. I mean... I'm going to use nosferatu, because it's awesome, but I guess it'll be up to the audience to decide whether or not I'm "abusing" it. Definitely going to use Sol.

And with the forts, it's still a TON of free exp even though it does decay over time.

[Czar_Yoshi]

EXP decay is very fast. You get less than a level even with Veteran from the boss of Cht.1, and that's before you start getting pinched by ILs.

[ConfidenceKBM]

EXP decay is very fast. You get less than a level even with Veteran from the boss of Cht.1, and that's before you start getting pinched by ILs.

Ah. Well, I think I added everything to the list. I'm not sure what you meant by breaking weapons, but I won't really be training weaklings, so yeah.

[Czar_Yoshi]

Breaking weapons is when you stand there for 100 turns and wait until all the enemies attacking you break their weapons. Training weaklings = training anyone not named Avatar after cht.3 (he's pretty weak too up until then).

Cht.16 is honestly overrated as long as you know when the reinforcements come. There are just two waves of reinforcements, one of which appears all in one place while the other is just a few Falcos. The Falcos are really spread out, too, so they won't mob you, and all of your fragile units can just hide behind someone else when they show up.

Edited April 17, 2014 by Czar_Yoshi

[shadowofchaos]

Morgan can get Aether and Lucina can get Ignis (or veteran), and that's just too strong IMO.

Wat. That can't happen unless you're MaMU.

[ConfidenceKBM]

Wat. That can't happen unless you're MaMU.

Yeah that's what I meant, I forgot to say "and marry her to Chrom", that was implicit in both Morgan having aether and lucina having ignis. ill fix it though.

[Czar_Yoshi]

Yeah that's what I meant, I forgot to say "and marry her to Chrom", that was implicit in both Morgan having aether and lucina having ignis. ill fix it though.

Chrom!Morgan inherits RK no matter what, it's not possible for him to get Aether. The only Morgans that can get Aether are 3rd gen Morgans parented by one of Chrom's daughters, so she's always female.

You can take much higher quality screenshots using Miiverse if you want. It also looks like your level data for post Cht.1 didn't update properly (the only thing that changed was your weapon ranks).

Edited April 17, 2014 by Czar_Yoshi

[ConfidenceKBM]

Chrom!Morgan inherits RK no matter what, it's not possible for him to get Aether. The only Morgans that can get Aether are 3rd gen Morgans parented by one of Chrom's daughters, so she's always female.

You can take much higher quality screenshots using Miiverse if you want. It also looks like your level data for post Cht.1 didn't update properly (the only thing that changed was your weapon ranks).

Ahhhh, that must be what I'm thinking of. Level data fixed. And sure, I'll try using Miiverse. Thanks for all of your contributions!