LHM + HHM Playthrough: S-Rank + Max Tactician Stars

[ruadath]

I finally finished Chapter 13, getting a 5-star in 5 turns! I ended up just barely scraping by here, getting 1 EXP over the requirement of 750, and 2G over the requirement of 3600G. At the end of the chapter, I had to burn roughly 20-30 RNs in order to ensure a couple of critical hits (to get the correct ratio of EXP to G) but I figured that this was nothing major since I was already using the mine glitch. I should also note that as a test, I checked my ranking (skipping 13x after making a savestate) and saw that I currently have 5 stars in all categories. Yay!

A playthrough will be posted soon, but in the meantime:

Name:     Lv.XP HP STR SKL SPD LCK DEF RES
Hector:   6.98  24  12  8   10  5   11  1
Oswin:    9.34  BASE
Matthew:  7.30  23  8   8   16  3   5   1
Serra:    5.29  19  6   7   12  10  3   7
Eliwood:  2.03  18  6   6   8   8   6   0
Marcus:   1.18  BASE
Rebecca:  3.54  19  6   5   8   5   5   1
Lowen:    4.02  25  9   6   9   4   8   0
Bartre:   4.22  31  11  5   5   5   4   0
Dorcas:   6.38  33  9   10  8   5   3   0
Guy:      3.54  25  8   13  13  6   5   1

That's right, Hector got a perfect level up! I was amazed too.

Edited July 24, 2015 by ruadath

[ruadath]

Turn 1: The northern team makes the same moves as before; Oswin breaks the Snag with the Iron Lance, Hector moves SE of Oswin, Marcus moves W of Hector and trade-equips Hector's Hand Axe, then rescues him and moves across the bridge. Bartre moves west onto the forest and equips Iron Axe.



Turn 1 (cont.): Things start to get different here already. Instead of rushing Rebecca in to attack and then rescue-dropping her out of harms way, we focus on establishing a good defensive position for the majority of the southern team, while positioning Lowen such that he can rush to the village on Turn 2. We position the team as follows, with Lowen equipping the Iron Lance (important!)



Enemy Turn 1: The nearby bandit charges Matthew, misses, and gets double-attacked in the counter. Matthew gets a solid level up.



Enemy Turn 1 (cont.): A PK strikes Bartre and gets countered. A PK and several archers also attack Lowen; one misses, but he is reduced to 12 HP. A cavalier misses a Javelin thrown at Marcus, and gets wounded severely by the counterattack from the Hand Axe.



Turn 2: Rebecca moves onto the mountains and takes out the PK who attacked Lowen. Bartre finishes off the cav from the north. Dorcas heads directly south and doubles (killing) the Steel Bow archer for a unusual, good level up. Matthew doubles the remaining archer archer from the north, Eliwood finishes the bandit with his Iron Sword, Serra advances, and Lowen visits the village for the Mine.





Turn 2 (cont.): Oswin moves west of Marcus and trade him his Iron Lance for the Secret Book, and Marcus then rides forward and hits the other Snag with the Iron Lance.



Enemy Turn 2: The injured PK suicides on Bartre. Another one flies over the river to attack Lowen, but gets doubled and dies (Lowen at 2 HP). A third PK hits Eliwood for some damage, and a final one hits Marcus before getting heavily damaged in the counter attack. The injured archer fires at Lowen, but misses.



Turn 3: Rebecca finishes the PK from the south. The rest of the team positions themselves as depicted (still no healing from Serra) with Lowen dropping the Mine south.



Turn 3 (cont.): Oswin moves straight west. Bartre moves south of him and trade-equips Hector with his Iron Axe, before finishing off the PK with his Hand Axe. He gets a poor level up, but not much can be done to improve it. Marcus rides around the eastern side of the castle and drops Hector south.





Enemy Turn 3: Two cavaliers attack Hector from the south and east, getting counterattacked in the process. Another one triggers the Mine we dropped, and after resetting, we now have control of the enemy units!



Enemy Turn 3 (cont.): Believe it or not, the position and action of every AI unit on the field this turn will be important to the success of this run. We'll get to see some fairly amusing things happening this phase. First, the northern of the two bandits rescues the cavalier south of Hector from below. The other bandit then attacks Lowen from the south with his Hand Axe misses; this serves the purpose of both giving us free EXP and moving the RNG to a better position. Boies then decides to move off his gate and charge Hector; he misses and gets doubled by our 9 Spd Hector.







Enemy Turn 3 (cont.): The northermost (injured) enemy archer then suicides on Rebecca, giving her a nice level up. We then have the westernmost archer move to the SW corner of the map and trade away his belongings (Iron Bow and Vulnerary) to the PK beside him. She then flies south of Guy and give both of those items, in additional to her Steel Lance to him.





Enemy Turn 3 (cont.): Guy moves straight east; the soldier near him moves 1 south. The remaining archers move east and south of Guy, respectively, and each trade him an Iron Bow for a Vulnerary.



Turn 4: ...And just like that, we're back in control of our own units again! Serra moves straight west and heals Lowen. Eliwood moves as far south as he can, then pokes the archer with his Iron Sword. Dorcas bashes the injured cav from the east, dodging the counterattack, and Lowen then finishes him off (Iron Lance). Rebecca moves NE of Dorcas, and then Matthew recruits Guy from above, but not before handing his Iron Sword over to Dorcas; he won't be needing it for the rest of this chapter (or the next one).





Turn 4 (cont.): Guy moves below Lowen, trades the Steel Lance he received earlier for Lowen's Iron Sword, and the crit-kills the bandit below him (with the Iron Sword! No Killing Edge allowed!).





Turn 4 (cont.): Oswin visits the NW village to get the Torch from Merlinus. I couldn't resist the opportunity to have Bartre skip a few (8) RNs here to witness this amazing sight for myself.



That's right, Hector Wolf Beil's Boise to death in one, clean blow, and gets a perfect level as a result! He continues to amaze on this playthrough. We need to get rid of the Hand Axe bandit as well, or he'll sit on the throne during the enemy phase and target Hector, prevent us from finishing the chapter. Since we can't have that, Marcus moves south of Hector and kills him with the Iron Lance. Bartre moves 1 south of the bridge (outside of the enemy cav's range).

Enemy Turn 4: The two cavs rush Hector and get killed; he nearly levels up again, but doesn't quite make it. A soldier pokes at the unarmed Matthew, but he dodges it, and a Hand Axe bandit misses Eliwood.



Turn 5: We now have 131 EXP left to get before the turn ends, and 90G of weapon uses left to get it (assuming we steal a Vulnerary). We burn an RN, the Eliwood pokes the bandit to (finally!) hit level 2. Serra heals Lowen again. After burning another RN, Lowen charges the soldier from the west to get a level up of his own. Dorcas the moves next to him, hand over the Iron Sword to Lowen, and kills the southern archer via a double. Matthew steals a Vulnerary from the remaining archer.







Turn 5 (cont.): Marcus whacks the nearby Pegasus Knight with his Iron Lance (for 5 EXP; every point counts!). We are then forced to burn roughly 30 RNs to set things up so that the next two attacks will be criticals. Guy and Rebecca (in that order) use this finish off the bandit and the archer. Bartre grabs his Iron Axe back from Hector, who then proceeds to seize to complete the map!

Edited July 26, 2015 by ruadath

[ruadath]

Just finished Chapter 13x. I'm not going to post a playthrough for this since the strategy was very similar to last time and its a boring defense chapter. I will, however, give a stats breakdown:

Name:     Lv.XP HP STR SKL SPD LCK DEF RES
Hector:   7.15  25  13  9   10  5   11  2 (C support Eliwood)
Oswin:    9.34  BASE
Matthew:  7.31  23  8   8   16  3   5   1
Serra:    5.51  19  6   7   12  10  3   7
Eliwood:  3.13  19  6   7   9   8   7   1 (C support Hector)
Marcus:   1.36  BASE
Rebecca:  5.30  20  8   7   9   6   6   1
Lowen:    5.99  26  10  7   10  5   8   1
Bartre:   5.25  32  12  6   6   5   4   0
Dorcas:   6.58  33  9   10  8   5   3   0
Guy:      5.60  27  10  15  15  6   8   2
Merlinus: 5.00 BASE

In summary, Hector continues to be awesome, Guy appears to be even more of a monster than in the last playthrough (seriously, he is looking as good if not better than Raven right now), Bartre and Eliwood continue to suck, and Lowen and Rebecca are going solid.

Rebecca is also getting pretty close to C in bows, which is useful. I'd like to get her up to B in bows ASAP, and then drop her from my team for a while. She's also leading in kills right now, with 13/15 compared to Hector's 12/26.

Also, the much satisfying Tactician Rank:



With this out of the way, onward to chapter 14! I'm excited for this one; the requirements aren't so bad, but I'll be pushing for another 5-turn clear in order to try and preserve the S-rank after Chapter 15 (which is an automatic 8 turn deficit). While it is certainly possible to clear the chapter in 5 turn, I don't know if it is possible to do so while getting 850 EXP (and being at least reasonably conservative with Wolf Beil, but I think I have roughly 2k G of weapon uses for this chapter regardless). Wish me luck!

By the way, after completing Chapter 15, I'll be at a checkpoint of sorts; I should have at that point 3+5+5+3+5+3=24 Tactician stars at that point, which means that upon opening the Tactician screen I should see 2 stars on the page. This will be used for confirmation that things are going according to plan (I also did some experimenting after Chapter 13, where we had 13 stars to see if I could reduce my rank by a star and have the screen remain unchanged, which verifies that at least up until that point, I am on track with all of the rankings).

Edited July 26, 2015 by ruadath

[ruadath]

A quick question: I know that if Erk is recruited in Chapter 14, Priscilla joins at then end of the chapter regardless of whether or not you actually visit her village, but does the value of her equipment count towards your funds total for the Chapter?

[Elieson]

I think that she's assumed to be part of your crew by chapter's end, so I'd assume so. I unfortunately can't say for sure

[Brinzy]

I believe the above is correct.

That chapter 13 play was tight as hell. The RN abuse was basically necessary for that. Still, seeing 5 stars in Tactics at that point is epic.

[ruadath]

Chapter 14 completed! This was quite a tricky one to get done in 5 turns and with 850 EXP; I managed it by performing the standard "rescue-drop Hector to Wolf Beil Erik" technique, but also had to rush a low-level unit in (Eliwood) behind the frontline to gather as much EXP as possible. I had to burn a couple RNs in various places to make certain things work out (usually making sure Eliwood survives, or rigging a critical hit for Erk near the end of the chapter), but never more than 5 in a single go.

I'm not certain that I got a 5-star on the funds rank for this chapter, as it depends on whether or not Priscilla counts as joining your team in this chapter even if you don't visit her village. Marcus had the option of making it to the village, but I had him kill a cav that could have gotten to Eliwood instead; I suppose that if it turns out that my funds rank is lacking then I could reload from that point and rig the RNG so that the cav misses (the other option would be not to have Hector go berserk with Wolf Beil), but I would prefer not to do that. If anyone could provide some expertise on this matter, I would very much appreciate it. In any case, I have the "checkpoint" ahead of Chapter 16, so it won't be too long before I know whether or not this works.

In the meantime, I will get a playthrough posted (soon).

EDIT: I found Nitrodon's lua script for tactician rank on the TAS forum, and this confirms that Priscilla's equipment is indeed counter to your Chapter 14 totals. It also allows me to keep track of my stars at all times, so I can confirm for you guys that I am at 21 stars right now. It even tracks funds/exp for the chapter! This is going to be so much better than paintakingsly logging stuff in excel as I do each level...

Edited July 26, 2015 by ruadath

[ruadath]

Alright, onto the playthrough! I'm excited for this one! Before we start, though, some important preparations: Guy trades some of his bows to Rebecca, Lowen should have an Iron Sword and Iron Lance (in case you temporarily gave the lance to Oswin in 13x, like I did), and Hector wants his Hand Axe back. Also, this should already be the case, but Dorcas/Bartre should have Iron Axes, and Matthew will be unarmed. Yay preparations screen!

We also take this opportunity to arrange our starting formation (Bartre is on the south).

Turn 1: We immediately burn 2 RN before Eliwood attacks the soldier. Rebecca finishes off the soldier from behind Eliwood, and Serra moves west.

The purpose of that RN burning was to ensure that Eliwood doesn't get hit. We need him to keep his HP up for as long as possible to ensure that he survives, since Serra won't have a chance to heal him.

Turn 1 (cont.): Back at the rear of our formation, Matthew heads east and steals the Vulnerary from the Knight. Dorcas and Bartre move directly east but don't attack anything; the RNG is nicely set up for Lowen's level on the enemy phase, so we don't want to do any more battles this turn. Oswin moves south of Merlinus and Guy moves across the bridge and as far west as he can go.

Turn 1 (cont.): Hector moves next to Marcus and equips the Hand Axe (this is important for ensuring that the enemy archers attack Lowen next turn, which will make their formation easier to cut through, allowing Hector to get to the boss on Turn 2 without needing to be rescued again). Marcus rescues Hector and moves as far west across the bridge as he can. Lowen moves west of Marcus (equips the Iron Lance!), takes Hector, and drops him south.

Enemy Turn 1: The Knight attacks Matthew, but he dodges. An enemy soldier charges Lowen and gets killed, giving him the nice level up we set up earlier. More soldiers advance, and a couple of soldiers stab Matthew, reducing him to 5 HP.

I guess it's confirmed at this point: Lowen is definitely doing better than Kent. This is great, because it means we can alternate between using Kent/Lowen as our primary cavalier in the mid-early chapters so as to prevent either of them from leveling too fast.

Enemy Turn 1 (cont.): A mercenary attacks guy and gets reduced to 2 HP, and the remaining two soldiers on the eastern side of the map suicide to double attacks from Bartre (only one of them hits him). More soldiers advance of the western front, and another mercenary charges Lowen and gets hurt. Some PKs fly up toward Bartre and Dorcas, and two archers fire at Lowen.

Other Phase 1: Erk moves west and crit-kills the Knight with Thunder. This wasn't really necessary, since he would have doubled him anyway, but I guess it saves 20G (not that funds are an issue on this map anyway).

I always thought the Thunder animation was cool. Too bad we can't get the nice EXP gain we would if Erk did this as one of our units.

Turn 2: A couple more RNs are burned, then Eliwood attacks the injured merc from above, dodging his counterattack, and Rebecca finishes him off from north of Eliwood. Marcus takes out the archer below Eliwood (Iron Lance), and Hector charges west into Erik's range, equipping Wolf Beil. Oh, while we're at it, Serra recruits Erk, who then moves west onto the house (not the forest, since we don't want him to aggro Erik). Lowen takes out the other nearby archer from the South (again, Iron Lance), and Guy moves 1 SE of Marcus to form a wall preventing the enemy from getting to Rebecca.

Turn 2 (cont.): Meanwhile on the eastern side of the map, Bartre and Dorcas take out an enemy soldier each, and Matthew moves south of Oswin to get rescued.

Enemy Turn 2: The injured mercenary attacks Eliwood and gets killed. Erik charges Hector, misses with his Horseslayer. Hector attacks back with WB, crushing him on the first blow, but then...

Originally, I was quite upset about missing on a 93% (not even true!) hit, but then I realized that this was a great opportunity to have someone other than Hector kill the boss for more EXP, so I kept it.

Enemy Turn 2 (cont.): The eastern Knight attacks Dorcas and gets doubled; the Myrmidon attacks Erk with a Steel Sword and gets hit as well. A soldier attacks Eliwood and gets doubled, and another attacks Guy with the same result. A third one attacks Guy as well, and gets crit-killed in the counter. A cavalier attacks Hector and gets OHKO'd by Wolf Beil. A PK attacks each of Bartre and Dorcas, and finally an archer hits Eliwood.

Now you see why we needed to keep his HP up earlier on.

Turn 3: Serra heals Erk, Eliwood finishes off the soldier nest to Guy from the South, and Bartre kills one of the PKs for a level up. Erk finishes the myrmidon, Rebecca kills the other soldier from the south, and the Dorcas kills the other PK for a level up of his own.

Finally, some defense for Bartre!

Unfortunately, it seems Dorcas' good level was a one-time deal... at least he gets to B in Axes. Anyway, these guys are done for this chapter.

Turn 3 (cont.): Hector doubles the archer with Wolf Beil (we have excess funds, so why not?), Lowen hits the merc beind Erik from the south. I burn ~5 RNs, then Guy kills Erik (and gets his Horseslayer). Marcus moves directly south, stopping right above the pirate (not attacking).

This guy is a monster! (pun intended) Erik gave him a round 100 EXP as well, so he is still only 2 EXP away from reaching level 7. I'll probably have to bench him soon to make sure he doesn't ORKO everything on the map.

Enemy Turn 3: The last Knight on the east side of the kills himself on Dorcas. A bandit duels Erk, who gets to C in anima magic. The injured mercenary suicides on Guy, giving him another level up.

Not quite as good as the last few, but we'll take it.

Enemy Turn 3 (cont.): The pirate attacks Marcus and gets hurt in the counter attack, and a cav gets double attacking Guy, but survives. A couple of cavs attack Marcus; one of them is doubled and dies. Another cav attacks Lowen and gets doubled, but survives.

Turn 4: Only 10 enemies left, and no more reinforcements! We only need to get 193 more EXP as well! Suddenly this seemingly impossible task seems very doable. I burn a couple RNs, then Eliwood attacks the injured pirate from the north for a level.

Not particularly strong, but at least Eliwood looks like he can hold his own in battle now.

Turn 4 (cont.): Rebecca kills one of the cavs from south of Guy, and Erk finishes the bandit that attacked him.

Rebecca's first not great level up, but she gets speed, which is the stat I care most about for her. I'm willing to make this sacrifice, however, so that...

And Erk starts off great. He'll be tremendously useful throughout the game.

Turn 4 (cont.): Serra visits the village for the Iron Blade. Lowen moves 4 spaces west and waits (this position is important for aggroing only the necessary enemies). Guy moves onto the forest east of Lowen. Marcus kills the cav, and Hector cleaves the other one with Wolf Beil.

Enemy Turn 4: The remaing pirate attacks (and misses) Eliwood. A cav attacks and gets double by Guy, another does the same to Lowen and gets killed, and a nomad shoots at Guy but misses.

Turn 5: Eliwood pokes the Pirate, then Marcus finishes him. Hector cleaves the nomad with Wolf Beil. Rebecca doubles the nomad to kill him, finally reaching C in bows.

Turn 5 (cont.): Serra heals Erk, who then attacks the bandit with Thunder.

Enemy Turn 5: The bandit attacks Erk again, getting killed, and ending the map!

Priscilla joins in the following cutscene, and there we have the 5 stars!

Edited July 26, 2015 by ruadath

[Brinzy]

I did not know such a script existed... I should steal this. I don't think anyone else gets the Priscilla treatment however, unless I am forgetting someone.

I'm surprised you managed to do enough RN abuse to not have Eli die...

[ruadath]

I'm surprised you managed to do enough RN abuse to not have Eli die...

It wasn't that much actually. I just needed to make sure the first two attacks that he made both had the counterattacks missing (both of which only took skipping a couple of RNs). After that (on enemy phase 2) everything hit him, but he had enough HP/Def to survive. And after that, he only got attacked by axe users (pirates), and they missed him without me even trying.

The positioning was important though. I had to make sure that only 2 enemy units (the soldier and archer) were able to attack him on turn 2, (besides the injured merc).

Edited July 26, 2015 by ruadath

[ruadath]

And of course, here is the obligatory post-chapter unit breakdown:

Name:     Lv.XP HP STR SKL SPD LCK DEF RES
Hector:   7.95  25  13  9   10  5   11  2 (C support Eliwood)
Oswin:    9.34  BASE
Matthew:  7.44  23  8   8   16  3   5   1
Serra:    5.73  19  6   7   12  10  3   7
Eliwood:  4.43  20  7   7   10  9   8   1 (C support Hector)
Marcus:   1.60  BASE
Rebecca:  6.30  20  8   7   10  6   6   2
Lowen:    6.79  27  11  8   11  6   9   1
Bartre:   6.14  33  13  6   7   5   5   0
Dorcas:   7.23  34  10  10  8   6   3   0
Guy:      7.30  28  11  17  17  6   8   3
Merlinus: 6.00  19  0   5   6   13  5   2
Erk:      5.54  21  8   9   11  5   3   6
Priscilla:3.00  BASE

Edited July 26, 2015 by ruadath

[ruadath]

I'm probably not going to run it for a short while, but I wonder if you guys have any thoughts for the overall strategy for Chapter 15? Usually I would press on the offense and try and grab most/all of the items, but for the purposes of this run, it seems like it might be a better idea simply to hold back and play defense to minimize EXP gain. What do you guys think?

Edited July 26, 2015 by ruadath

[Paper Jam]

The boss in chapter 15 moves if someone is within his attack range, doesn't he? You don't even have to play very offensively to beat him and snag his shield.

[ruadath]

Is it possible to 5-star funds on Chapter 19x? The requirement is .8*24500=19600, but all I see available is the Goddess Icon from the village (8000) and the Swordreaver drop (2100)... unless the Silver Card has some inherent worth (I don't think it does?)

[Balcerzak]

The Silver Card is worth 4000 and fireemblemwod suggests there's a droppable Fire tome?

Edited July 26, 2015 by Balcerzak

[ruadath]

Hmmm, even with that it only amounts to 8000+2100+560+4000=14660, which is still 5k too short...

[ruadath]

That is quite unfortunate... I suppose a mine trick can't help you here (the best you could do would be to exchange the droppable Fire tome for Nosferatu, but that would still only net you ~2500).

EDIT: Oh wait, nevermind, you can have enemy units convoy their weapons. So it should work out alright. But this a good heads up to get the Mine in Chapter 17!

Edited July 26, 2015 by ruadath

[Balcerzak]

I had added a comment by way of edit that you may have missed, so I removed it and am reposting it.

The large shortfall is probably due to the Elysian Whip that Eliwood's mode gives you a chance to steal, that Hector's map seems to lack. I can't confirm or deny until I get home from work and can boot up a chapter and peek.

Edited July 26, 2015 by Balcerzak

[ruadath]

Right, I saw that. Thanks, Balcerzak!

[Paper Jam]

Yes, there is an Elysian Whip in EHM chapter 18x that is missing from HHM; in HHM, it is instead in chapter 18.

[ruadath]

Thanks for all of the input guys! I believe the resolution to the problem is simply to use the mine trick (making sure to get the mine from Chapter 17) and have the PKs in the chapter fork their Axereavers over to Merlinus.

While we are on the topic of discussing funds issues related to the playthrough, do you guys want to talk about which units get promoted? I imagine the list will look something like this:

Bartre (definitely)

Canas (definitely)

Guy/Raven (definitely one/ probably both)

Florina/Fiora (definitely one/possibly both)

Erk (most likely)

Heath (probably)

Rath (possibly)

Kent/Lowen (possibly one, both unlikely)

Nino (unlikely)

Am I forgetting anyone here? Is there anyone you would definitely recommend against promoting? If I stick to this list (which I didn't realize was so small), I may even be able to promote Lyn/Eliwood!

EDIT: Alternatively, some of the extra money could be put to use via statboosters... I suppose I should also add Lucius (unlikely) to the above list.

EDIT (again): perhaps Heath/Rath should be on the list as (possible) as well

Edited July 27, 2015 by ruadath

[ruadath]

By the way, I just realized that there is an easy solution to the problem of offensive/defensive play on Chapter 15, since its a zero requirements Chapter. Simply play offensively, letting Marcus roam the map and kill all of the enemies (including Sealen), while Oswin/Rebecca hangs around the base and kill anyone who gets to close.

Edited July 27, 2015 by ruadath

[Brinzy]

That Chapter 15 strat is pretty good. I would go with that if I were you.

Are you promoting Bartre for the sake of Karla or is it because of his godly speed? I'm really glad to see some Canas love and potential Rath usage, as these are two characters I want to use in my main run as well. Any particular reason for Rath for you?

I'm not too big a fan of Guy, but his offense is extremely good, so you've got that going for you. Would you even promote Guy when Raven exists and you're promoting Bartre? The 3rd Hero Crest is in the desert chapter, which I guess isn't bad at all. Might as well promote all three if you're going that route.

Edited July 27, 2015 by Brinzy

[ruadath]

Yeah, Bartre is just because of Karla; I'm planning to recruit everyone in this playthrough (including Farina and probably choosing Geitz over Wallace and Harken over Karel, unless anyone has any objections). He's not a terrible unit despite his low speed/defense; I usually just think of him as a worse version of Hector, but still capable of outputting some reasonable damage. I was originally thinking of promoting him early and then just leaving him for a while before pushing him up to Lv 5, but now that I think about it, he could be used as a relatively good EXP sink as well.

This shouldn't be an issue, but the majority of units who I want to promote should be ready for that by Chapter 26 (Unfulfilled Heart) at the latest. It's perfectly fine if I have a couple of stragglers though.

Any particular reason for Rath for you?

Not too sure about that, just considering him as an option; I've never been a huge fan of archers in the GBA games, but he may prove useful yet (especially for late EXP gain).

I'm not too big a fan of Guy, but his offense is extremely good, so you've got that going for you. Would you even promote Guy when Raven exists and you're promoting Bartre? The 3rd Hero Crest is in the desert chapter, which I guess isn't bad at all. Might as well promote all three if you're going that route.

I'm not too sure about Guy either, as mounted units/mages are usually more useful than physical infantry late game, and he doesn't get a ranged weapon (unlike Raven, who gets the Hand Axe after promotion). Still he'll be useful early on at least, and may see some late game usage for EXP gain (as a strong unit who can hold his own despite lower levels).

[ruadath]

Chapter 15 complete! This was actually a really easy chapter to do, since I predominantly used my overpowered tanks (Marcus and Oswin) to trivialize the level. Also, the rankings screen now shows 2 stars (!), which confirms that I have achieved all 24 stars at this point. This is something I presume no one has ever achieved before, since I doubt anyone used the mine trick on Chapter 13 in the manner I did! This is really exciting!

Furthermore, thanks to all the turns I managed to save up earlier, I'm still at an S-rank, and in particular, on par with the Tactics rank despite taking an 8-turn loss! I'm now exactly on par in terms of turns, by the way.

The playthrough will be posted soon; it shouldn't take me long since this chapter was so quick!