Video HHM Ranked LTC

[ruadath]

By the way, here is my ranking screen upon reaching Chapter 14:

As you could probably guessed by the atrocious number of 1 EXP combat rounds I had in Chapter 13, I've taken a hit in the Combat ranking. This isn't an issue at all though, and I'll easily make this up in a few chapters.

And here is everyone's stats:

Name:     Lv.XP  HP STR SKL SPD LCK DEF RES    W/B
Hector:    5.82  23  10  4   8   5   10  2    11/22
Matthew:   3.97  19  5   5   12  3   3   0     3/13
Eliwood:   2.88  19  6   5   8   7   6   0     5/8
Marcus:    1.60  BASE                          2/7
Rebecca:   2.39  18  5   5   7   4   3   2     3/6
Lowen:     4.29  25  9   5   9   4   8   1     5/14
Dorcas:    3.92  BASE                          2/8
Bartre:    3.37  30  10  6   4   4   4   1     3/7
Oswin:     9.35  BASE                          1/5
Serra:     1.68  BASE                          0/2
Guy:       3.58  BASE                          2/3

So you don't have to calculate it yourself, my overall W/B ratio is 37/95~.3895, which is not that far off from what it needs to be. In fact, I'll probably regain the combat rank after Chapter 14.

Edited September 7, 2015 by ruadath

[ruadath]

So it turns out I actually managed to find a different playthrough where I breached 700 EXP! This came at the cost of Matthew not stealing the Vulnerary, but I figure ~30 EXP is worth ~300G, so I'm still happy. Furthermore, I managed to satisfy the combat rank, so I'm still at 5 stars on everything prior to Chapter 14, and since I got 4 stars on EXP I managed to get 4 Tactician Stars from the chapter instead of 3, which means that I'm at a total of 12 stars, so Hector, Bartre, and Erk all get an extra point of hit and avoid for the next chapter (if that means anything). I guess Serra gets an extra point of hit too.

Rebecca also got an absolutely awful level up, but she's getting benched after the next chapter anyway, so I don't think it really matters. Matthew got an awesome level up, which more than makes up for that.

I'm busy with stuff right now, so it may be a while till I get to positing the playthrough, but I just wanted to let you guys know!

[ruadath]

Chapter 13

In terms of preparation, I had Marcus grab Lowen's Iron Lance (instead of Dorcas' Iron Axe) at the end of the last chapter and I waited until the cutscene with Guy before skipping.



And here is the awesome formation that you get when playing vanilla HHM! Marcus' position at the front is what makes it possible to 4-turn this chapter.

Turn 1: Rebecca attacks the brigand, Matthew rescues her from above, Hector moves above him, trades his Hand Axe to Rebecca, and drop hers east. Marcus makes sure his Iron Lance is equipped, grabs Hector, and moves down and south of the western forest that is in his range. Serra moves above Rebecca and takes her Hand Axe, then Bartre moves east of Serra and grabs it for himself. Dorcas moves west of Serra, Oswin breaks the snag, Lowen trade-equips Oswin's Iron Lance and moves west of the bridge, and Eliwood burns an RN and moves south of Oswin.



Enemy Turn 1: The brigand attacks and misses Matthew, and gets doubled. A PK attacks Lowen, who doubles but misses his second counter, and another two attack Marcus.



This is the reason why I had Marcus grab the lance and not the axe. With the Iron Lance equipped, Marcus kills neither of the PKs and leaves them both with 1 HP perfect for my other units to finish off for additional EXP. Note that Marcus gets the same amount of EXP for battling these guys as killing them.

The Steel Bow archer misses Marcus. By the way, Marcus dodged one of the PK's attacks as well, so he is still at a healthy 28 HP. The other archer attacks Matthew, and the Javelin cavalier misses Lowen.



Turn 2: Rebecca moves south onto the mountain and kills the brigand. 5 RNs are burned, then Dorcas crit kills the archer from the west. Bartre moves through the newly cleared path and kills the northern PK from above



Serra heals Matthew, I burn 3 RNs, and then Lowen attacks the Javelin cavalier from below, dodging his counter. Marcus moves 5W1S, trades his equipment to Hector (so that he can aggro Guy on the enemy phase), drops him east, and cantos 1 SE. Matthew moves to the spot where Marcus was and kills the other PK



Awesome level for Matthew! It's much more useful for something like this to go to him than Rebecca, especially since he desperately needs those Str procs.

Eliwood kills the PK, Oswin burns 1 RN and then moves north of Eliwood.

Enemy Turn 2:

Guy charges out and attacks Marcus



This was the reason for that last RN burn; I didn't want Guy to waste a precious Killing Edge use.

A soldier attacks Hector and gets double, followed by a cav who attacks him and gets one shotted by Wolf Beil. A PK attacks Lowen, and a cav misses Marcus. The Steel Bow archer hits Matthew, two more archers strike Hector, a Hand Axe brigand misses Hector, and the Javelin cav misses Eliwood.



Turn 3: Lowen finishes off the PK that attacked him, the Eliwood moves into the forest and attacks the Javelin cav, again dodging the counter. Serra heals Matthew, Dorcas hits the Steel Bow archer from above, I burn an RN, and then Bartre crit kills the cav with his Hand Axe so that Matthew can recruit Guy.

Oswin attacks the Javelin cav from the west, then Rebecca attacks the Steel Bow archer, dodging his counter.



A practical nonlevel for Rebecca, since she's probably never going to see combat with a mage, but I need her to dodge the counter from the archer so that he doesn't target and kill her the next turn. While I would normally just rig for a dodge so that I gained extra EXP from the counter (instead of the archer targeting Serra), I also need to ensure Lowen's survival, and burning enough RNs to make both of those things happens means that I miss the low RN I need for Marcus' Silver Lance crit on the boss and end up having to burn ~50 RNs for that, so I can't improve this level.

Guy crit kills the archer blocking the path to Hector with his Killing Edge, Oswin attacks the cav with his Javelin from the west, I burn an RN, and Marcus rides around the river and up to Hector, grabs his lance back and crit kills the brigand with his Iron Lance. Hector burns 3 RNs and then moves onto the forest above the archer.



Nice how that positioning worked out, wouldn't you agree? Hector and Marcus can both reach the boss on the next turn, assuming that no enemy gets in their way.

Enemy Turn 3: The Javelin cav misses Lowen, The remaining cav near Boise suicides on Hector, then the PK up north brings Lowen down to 4 HP but gets hurt in the process. An archer hits Guy, the Hand Axe brigand misses Matthew, another archer strikes Serra, and finally one more archer hits Matthew.

Turn 4: Bartre hits the western archer, and Matthew finishes him off. I then burn an RN, and Marcus Silver Lance crit kills Boies.


Serra visits the village, Rebecca attacks the other archer. I burn 2 RNs, then Lowen finishes off the final PK


Sweet. Oswin visits the village for a Torch, I burn an RN, and Guy crit kills the nearby archer. Eliwood kills the Javelin cav, then I burn 3 RNs and Dorcas finishes off the archer



and now Hector is free to seize and clear the map!

Chapter Totals:
703/750 EXP
1293/3600 G

Campaign Totals:
1714/1300 EXP
32007/15600 G

I'm pretty happy with this, I was hoping for only 600 EXP, and roughly a loss of 2000 in funds. Both of these were met, so things are looking pretty good. The only thing I'm a little bit annoyed about, though I couldn't have done anything about it without losing a good chunk of EXP (and possibly the Torch), is that Lowen didn't get to move across the river and visit the armory for some weapons. I won't have access to a shop again until Chapter 16, and since all of the Caelin party might be busy fighting for their lives and EXP at that point, it's very possible that I won't be able to buy anything until Pirate Ship!

Yikes. But overall, I'm still extremely happy with this, and I think I can manage my weapons well enough that it hopefully won't be an issue.

On a different note, I obviously did not accept the sidequest. Getting Merlinus early and 5000G aren't worth 8 turns. Although the money would really be quite nice...

Edited September 10, 2015 by ruadath

[Brinzy]

That 4-turn clear was insane. To me at least.

How fast do you think you can do 14?

[ruadath]

14 should be 4-turnable with full 850 EXP, just like in the Max Tactician Star playthrough.

[ruadath]

Images for the new playthrough have been posted, and the new stats are as follows:

Name:     Lv.XP  HP STR SKL SPD LCK DEF RES    W/B
Hector:    5.81  23  10  4   8   5   10  2    11/21
Matthew:   4.48  20  6   6   13  3   4   0     5/14
Eliwood:   2.88  19  6   5   8   7   6   0     5/8
Marcus:    1.60  BASE                          2/7
Rebecca:   2.21  17  4   5   6   4   3   2     2/8
Lowen:     4.29  25  9   5   9   4   8   1     5/14
Dorcas:    4.02  31  8   8   7   3   3   0     2/8
Bartre:    3.37  30  10  5   4   4   4   1     3/7
Oswin:     9.34  BASE                          1/4
Serra:     1.56  BASE                          0/1
Guy:       3.58  BASE                          2/3

Edited September 9, 2015 by ruadath

[ruadath]

OK, so in an attempt to change something (which I didn't end up doing), I replayed this playthrough, following my guide to perform the correct steps. Unfortunately, I found that Marcus was not able to grab Lowen's Iron Lance at the end of Chapter 12 (previously I had just changed in between chapters with codes, since I had already saved afterward and thought it was possible)! This is because Lowen takes the last kill on the level and needs his lance to do so.

This turned out to be perfectly OK though, as Marcus can perform the exact same duties in Chapter 13 by grabbing Lowen's Iron Sword. In fact, I actually saved a net of 6G (added to the totals above) thanks to the fact that Marcus only uses his sword 3 times, while Oswin gets to conserve a Javelin use since he has an Iron Lance.

This is unrelated to the above issue, but I actually also ended up balancing Hand Axe uses better by having Dorcas trade his Hand Axe through Serra to Bartre instead of having Hector do so. This was in fact what inspired the rerun, since I had been hoping to have Hector use his Hand Axe for some extra experience (and saving Killing Edge uses from Guy), but then realized that Hector needed to keep Wolf Beil equipped both turns to one shot the cavs on the enemy phase, so nothing else changed here.

[ruadath]

So with the advent of a 3 turn clear of Chapter 12, this run is obviously going to get restarted. Since there isn't much here and it isn't particularly well organized, there is a reasonable chance I might just start a new thread.

[ruadath]

Just a quick update: redoing Chapter 13 after the 3 turn clear is proving to be slightly more difficult than anticipated due to the fact that Eliwood and Lowen haven't gained a level yet, and Matthew missing a Str proc. I'll let you guys know when further progress is made.

[Yojinbo]

Just saw that you're uploading vids of this run. Are you still going for ranks?

[ruadath]

I haven't gone back to this run and probably won't until after I finish the Shadow Dragon run. With regards to your question, I'm not certain anymore, especially since General Horace's LTC is now offline. I might run the first few chapters the same way, and then have the playthroughs branch off at like Chapter 15/16 or whatever.

[Yojinbo]

Well, there's a 'new' LHM + HHM LTC run up:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RI0oz9J5G3E

It skips Gaiden chapters though.

Edited October 7, 2015 by Yojinbo

[ruadath]

Oh cool, I didn't see this. But this (my run) would be without Lyn Mode, without gaiden chapters.

[ruadath]

Just a quick update: redoing Chapter 13 after the 3 turn clear is proving to be slightly more difficult than anticipated due to the fact that Eliwood and Lowen haven't gained a level yet, and Matthew missing a Str proc. I'll let you guys know when further progress is made.

OK, I think I was just being silly here regarding Matthew not having enough Str. This should be easily fixable by letting Marcus trade his Iron Sword for Lowen's Iron Lance on the last turn of Chapter 12.

[ruadath]

In an amusing turn of events, it appears that leaving Lowen weaponless (i.e. having Marcus take his Iron Lance and give him nothing in return), actually turns out to be more beneficial than giving him the Iron Sword.

And in case you thought this run was dead, it's not!

[ruadath]

Alright, so I now have a completed 4-turn playthrough of Chapter 13, but I need to make the same decision as before in order to post the video:

The run will get 715 EXP regardless, but I have the following two choices:

1) 1380G, Serra visits the village for a Torch

2) 1362G, Rebecca visits the village instead, Serra heals and gets WEXP, Matthew needs to use a second attack when doubling an enemy since Rebecca doesn't damage first

Also, I suppose a distant 3rd option would be to not visits the village and have 726 EXP, but only 860G. I'm not particularly interested in this option.

So which choice would you guys make? From an LTC perspective, the "obvious" option would be to take the extra WEXP for Serra, but here I think that Serra will easily get enough WEXP to use Barrier when she needs it, and Physic when we have access to 2 of them (Priscilla gets first dibs). This is especially true (I think) if I give give Priscilla's Mend to Serra for Chapter 15 (the defense chapter). But I'd like to hear what you think.

Edited October 13, 2015 by ruadath

[Sniper Knight]

Serra can Torch of FoW chapters for even more WEXP than Heal, so I'd go for the Torch, which, IIRC, is fairly cost-efficient.

[ruadath]

Serra can Torch of FoW chapters for even more WEXP than Heal, so I'd go for the Torch, which, IIRC, is fairly cost-efficient.

Sorry, I made a typo; it's just a torch, not a torch staff.

[Sniper Knight]

That was probably caused my sadly lacking skill in thinking, since Torch staves cost 1000 (?), but in that case I'd go for the extra WEXP, since there's only a... negative... profit... of 18G. The sooner Serra can Warp, the better.

[ruadath]

That was probably caused my sadly lacking skill in thinking, since Torch staves cost 1000 (?), but in that case I'd go for the extra WEXP, since there's only a... negative... profit... of 18G. The sooner Serra can Warp, the better.

Right, now that I think about it, this is clearly the better option, also because it means Rebecca stays at level 1 for longer and gets more EXP (maybe?) that way. Serra's EXP is obviously independent of level and I doubt Serra will even get enough EXP to be promoted.

[Yojinbo]

Why do you care about Serra's weapon level anyway?

[ruadath]

Why do you care about Serra's weapon level anyway?

Uh, so she can use better staves for more EXP.

Edited October 13, 2015 by ruadath

[Sniper Knight]

Also Warp, which is kind of a big deal.

Who do you think you'll end up promoting?

[ruadath]

Also Warp, which is kind of a big deal.

Who do you think you'll end up promoting?

For right now, the only one I know for sure is Lowen. I would say Florina too, but I don't remember how bad remember how difficult it is too train her without LHM transfers, so she's still a maybe. Other candidates include Heath, Sain, Priscilla, and maybe a mage (Erk/Lucius) though I don't know about this.

I'm not sure how useful having an extra Warp user will be, just due to the fact that if I stick with the plan to go after the S rank (which I am doing) I doubt I'll really be able to rush through the maps at the highest possible possible speed after getting Warp, if for no other reason than taking the time to gain EXP/Funds. But there is a chance I will split this playthrough into 2 after Chapter 14, so that would obvously be very useful in a pute LTC.

[Yojinbo]

Florina without LHM transfers is already kinda useless as a combat unit EHM, I can't see her being worth promoting in HHM. Canas, Heath, Rath, Eliwood, Priscilla and two out of Sain, Kent and Lowen are the likliest candidates if you didn't play LHM and are looking out for funds.

Also Warp, which is kind of a big deal.

Warping people is mostly Canas' job with Pent and Priscilla being back-up.