LTC FE3 Book 1 & Book 2 Low Turns Run (BOOK 1 COMPLETE)

[Topazd]

Ah, I see. Good to have all that clarified, should have experimented more with the sphere. Alright, I'll personally vote for Kashim, in the case a Parthia user is needed.

Hmm, I think it's more favourable to make an attempt at ≥32 damage from the geosphere rather than the double crit - you can abuse it immediately at the beginning of the map. Can't assess the exact odds, but I managed to squeeze that much damage a multitude of times while testing just now (in quite a small time frame). A Parthia hit + crit will do the trick afterwards. I'm not certain if it's overall more reliable than the double crit, but it seems more tolerable to rig it this way, at least.

Alternatively, you can rig ≥42 damage from the sphere (it does 15 per use at most afaik) to result in a safe latter portion with no crits at all, though I can't comment on what the odds to accomplish that would be like.

Edited August 31, 2015 by Topazd

[Espinosa]

Since it's possible for a unit to trade with multiple allies per turn (this is unique to FE3 iirc?), it's quite feasible to ferry warp around to another warper even on the same turn they used the staff, with a bit of forethought (except for final, of course). 2 intact staves is still preferable though, I agree.

If the most turn-saving warp expenditure approach features only a single Warp in the final chapter, then we might as well break the first Warp staff. I want to know how quickly the second Warp staff can be acquired before then, though (I imagine one of the thieves gets it, and he could either run south or escape, which depends how easy it would be to reach him).

Fliers don't need promotion to be useful on outdoor maps. Considering Shiida is Book 1's best flier and is rocking a silver lance from turn one onwards, getting her experience isn't difficult.

Foregoing the Falchion is probably a sensible idea factoring in Starlight. Here's a no-Falchion one-turn clear strategy:

• Warp max-strength Partia/Gradivus user into the throne room.
• Have three units swap and use up the Earth Orb, bringing Medeus' HP to 30 or under (damage varies).
• Grind attempts until Partia/Gradivus user activates a double critical.
• Warp Marth into throne room and have him seize.

This strategy entails training up either an armor or (preferably) a bowman.

I agree, even if Sheeda doesn't get to promote, I still need her combat/utility during the early outdoor maps, which are plentiful. There are armour bosses whom she can get to faster than others thanks to flight, then dismount and attack with an Armour Kill.

A bowman is likely preferred because of the ease of training them and actual utility they could provide. Linde is also an option. A Partia user needs 20 str, 20 skl (for max crit) and 10 speed to do the task. Linde needs 20 mag, 20 skl and 9 speed (just +2 over base) to do the same, and she gets sufficient speed just by virtue of promoting alone. Mediuth deals 22 defence-piercing damage to all targets, so surviving won't be a problem for anyone, Linde included, in the event we settle for the 1-turn clear with 2 Warps.

Marth has 4 units accompanying him. Three could use the Geosphere (while a staffer(-s) in another party uses Reserve to prevent anyone from dying), and the fourth could trade the Earth Orb to Marth before warping him in so that Marth grants Kashim/Linde/whoever +10 crit. 30% crit is a lot more reliable than 20%, albeit still quite luck-reliant.

Ah, I see. Good to have all that clarified, should have experimented more with the sphere. Alright, I'll personally vote for Kashim, in the case a Parthia user is needed.

Hmm, I think it's more favourable to make an attempt at ≥32 damage from the geosphere rather than the double crit - you can abuse it immediately at the beginning of the map. Can't assess the exact odds, but I managed to squeeze that much damage a multitude of times while testing just now (in quite a small time frame). A Parthia hit + crit will do the trick afterwards. I'm not certain if it's overall more reliable than the double crit, but it seems more tolerable to rig it this way, at least.

Alternatively, you can rig ≥42 damage from the sphere (it does 15 per use at most afaik) to result in a safe latter portion with no crits at all, though I can't comment on what the odds to accomplish that would be like.

So,

1) what is the range of the damage Earth Orb can potentially deal?

2) does Mediuth, after all, not halve the damage done to him with the item?

I'm in, like, chapter 13 on my test run, so I should be able to answer the first question pretty soon.

Kashim's little problem is losing 2 skl upon dismounting. I'm not sure if he can level 18 -> 20 skill by manually dismounting and levelling up in skill somewhere on the way, for effective 22 skill as a Horseman (and does he not lose it after dismounting anyway?).

Without two warps, Ch.20 takes a minimum of three turns. Earth Orb cannot kill, so Marth must spend a turn removing one of the surrounding enemies, a turn killing Medeus, and a turn seizing the throne.

It is possible the other thirteen warp uses at one's disposal all save more than two turns, in which case a final map one warp / three turn clear is preferred.

You have two Warp staves, one brought by Rena in chapter 3 (which is not seeing any use until chapter 5 or later) and the one obtained from a chest/thief in chapter 14, which likely does not necessitate a Warp use (though Boots!Marth can seize on turn 2 because of his glorious movement).

Pre-chapter 14 Warps (the ones using Rena's staff) all save an average of over 5 turns, it seems. In chapter 5, Banutu needs to recruit Chiki, and has issues getting there. Alternatively, Banutu transforms on turn 1 and then uses his 7 move to move towards Chiki before untransforming on turn 6 (I really hope this is based on turns and not combat as with laguz gauges; testing seems to show this is the case). By turn 6, I should have more than enough time to nab all the chests I need, including Earth Orb and even Sheeda's promotion item.

Assuming I don't warp in chapter 15, I have 7-8 Warps (depending on whether I break the first one) for chapters 16-20, which is 5 maps. I can and should therefore use more than 1 Warp (likely two in each) in two/three of the maps. If the 1-turn Kashim/Linde/whoever strategy in Final shaves off 2 turns compared to what (an extremely competent) Marth can accomplish in 3 turns, then this takes priority over other 2-warp strats.

One problem is also having a beefy enough Marth while attending to all the other duties, though accessible stat boosters go a long way towards making it happen.

[feplus]

Earth Orb has a damage range of 5-15. Damage dealt to Medius is not halved.

Mounts can have stats above their dismount penalty threshold but, as you say, these stats must be acquired while dismounted (through level-ups or stat boosts).

Edited September 1, 2015 by feplus

[Topazd]

Marth has 4 units accompanying him. Three could use the Geosphere (while a staffer(-s) in another party uses Reserve to prevent anyone from dying), and the fourth could trade the Earth Orb to Marth before warping him in so that Marth grants Kashim/Linde/whoever +10 crit. 30% crit is a lot more reliable than 20%, albeit still quite luck-reliant.

But since it's become apparent that the Geosphere cannot kill units here, you don't need to use Reserve; maybe just Relive/Recover Kashim or whomever commits the bosskill. It sadly also means Marth cannot give the Geosphere crit boost, since the only way for him to seize on the same turn (unless a third unit takes care of a bishop or the manakete) is warping him onto Medeus' throne specifically.

Although, the fact that Geo isn't lethal does make it pretty quick and straightforward to rig it do the desired amount of damage before you do anything else in the chapter. If the 1-turn strat is taken, I'm personally convinced rigging that 32+ damage will save a lot of trouble - I can say it isn't an unlikely amount at all, now that I've done a few test rounds against Medeus.

I've gotten his HP to 15 at the lowest, I guess the 42+ damage is possible with persistence or save states if one wants to take that route.

[Espinosa]

So WRT this map...

http://www.fireemblemwod.com/fe3/guia/fecapitulo13.htm

It looks like Warp would be wasted here. Marth can recruit Samson on turn 2 thanks to 11 move, and if you were to send a healer to warp him back to where Chainy is, you'd still only seize on turn 6 or so. On the contrary, if you take the left-hand path from Samson's village and just keep going all the way around, hopefully not dying to the cavs there (maybe a mobile flier like Minerva could assist, or Jeigan or Midia or something, but these two will eventually lag behind Marth since they can't fly over the sea areas), while somebody, like a flier or a good combat unit, opens the door to release Chainy. Chainy heads in the direction where Marth is, so he will eventually re-direct south, so we have to open the door from inside or outside before then to enable him to self-recruit on Marth.

The desert is another bad map for a warpskip - 11 move Marth reaches the boss quickly enough in spite of all the terrain difficulties.

Right now, it appears these pre-C14 maps are Warp-worthy:

C5 - saves a lot of turns (~5), but Marth needs to be really strong and survive a bunch of attacks and 1-2RKO the boss with Rapier crits. I never rigged his defence growths or anything, so it will be hard even with the 20% avoid from terrain.

C6 - another obvious one. Warp after recruiting Banutu, kill boss with Shiida who hopefully crits or has gained good stats prior to this.

C7 - also saves 5 or so turns, skipping nothing of value besides a ton of combat exp from fighting all those knights and archers. The boss should be way easier to 1-2RKO, and if we don't warpskip C5, we can Physic Marth after the PP combat.

C8 - Marth needs to be Warped to Maria, who will open two doors for him (or maybe not, it looks pretty dangerous). I planned out how Shiida could drop the Warp staff by ORKOing the Hero Proof Hero on turn 2 so that Maria would retrieve the Warp from the Convoy and Warp Marth to kill the boss, but this doesn't shave off nearly as many turns as you'd like to. So just 1 Warp here.

C9 - obvious Warp after recruiting George/Linda.

C10 - okay, I don't really know what to do here, but you really want the Boots because 7 -> 11 move will make an enormous difference immediately. You can't buy Chest Keys yet, but will you dare to Warp Julian there? 3 21 atk Silver Lance soldiers await him there. Marth can open chests with da Fire Emblem! and probably has better chances of survival/ORKOing, especially if he's been taking boosters and KOing bosses with non-shitty level-ups. Waiting for the enemy thieves to get it takes way too long however, and you can't have your mounted units help out in any way since it's an indoor map. Though Marth can use Boots on the very turn he opens the chest containing them, he won't get to the boss quickly at all, and maybe somebody else entirely will need to kill the boss. I should probably invest into Oguma and Julian, I guess (Navarre seems superfluous and his bases are worse).

So that's 6 Warps (5 if Marth cannot really kill the C5 boss without dying), leaving the staff unbroken until you can acquire the second one, which can allow a 1-turn clear of Final. A 1-clear of Final is also advised if Marth fails to grow into the great unit we'd want him to be to do his own bosskilling, including the slaying of Mediuth.

Some optional Warps:

C4 - shaves off only 3 turns, but there's nothing interesting on that map anyway (besides maybe a Firestone for Banutu).

C8 - by having Maria use the convoy Warp on Marth on turn 2, even 1?, the map could be 2-3 turned. Jukof's bulk and the offensive prowess of the mooks around him make this intimidating and only work on paper, though. This also saves 3 turns, maybe 4 if Jukof can be felled by Marth on enemy phase (lmao).

C10 - Warp Marth to kill boss and then Warp Julian to open the chest with Boots for a 2-turn clear. Probably not an awful idea (though it couldn't hurt if Julian could kill one of the soldiers for the Knight Crest too). The soldiers are sorta easy to critblick, and Julian could face around 75-ish hit on him with their Silver Lances to try and dodge one of them. We miss the Orion Bolt this way however (and we likely aren't getting the one in C14)!

If Kashim cannot promote, George could be a decent alternative. His speed is fine (for the purposes of Mediuth-slaying, that is), but at base he is 13 points of strength and 10 points of skill short of capping said stats.

As for the later chapters...

C14 - can be 2-turned but we want the Warp from one of the chests. It's a better idea to open the chest/steal it from a thief than to waste our own Warp for it.

C15 - 6-turned without Warps, so that Banutu untransforms (oh crap, I just realised I'm probably not getting the Fire Stone from C4...) on turn 6 to recruit Chiki and get her away from the throne, and we will be able to grab all the Orbs until then, I think. 7-turned without the Fire Stone... 4-turned pretty easily with 1 Warp on Banutu, I think... So this is another 1 Warp=3 turns situation, I guess.

C16 - complex chapter with ballistae, recruiting Est and Lawrence, and Camus being a beast to kill. Can't say much about it, but I have a feeling there will be no warping there.

C17 - doublewarp for a 1-turn clear, obviously. Or a single Warp on Marth for a 2-turn? Yet another case where everything depends on Marth's competence.

C18 - Gharnef's map and I honestly can't picture what it'll play out like yet. Need to get there first. 1 Warp I think.

C19 - we should be able to reach Zemzel with a flier Warpless and crit him with the Gungnir or something. So it's just a single Warp on Marth.

C20 - we've discussed this at length; 1-2 turns depending on how we arrange the Warping and how competent Marth is.

So that's quite a lot of variables to take into account. Since this is a) a run with growths, b) a growths run without heavy rigging and RNG abuse, the variables don't leave everything anywhere as clear as one may like.

[Nintales]

I'd say the Firestone is worth is.

Banutu OHKOs anything in this game, or 2HKOs as Dragonbreath pierces defense. He takes one turn to transform, but he deals something like 22 damage to any unit. Though he can't double. If you feel like you don't need such a unit though (because you're gonna sheeda the game, even with no win spear), don't go for it. :D

[Espinosa]

Chapter 2 in 4 turns.

I sped up the entire video 2x here. You might need to pause after level-ups to see which stats grew (shouldn't be necessary when I start deliberately pausing the menu skipping at that point in videos to come), but overall it condenses the original video to half the original length and makes it easier to watch. Any feedback on this is welcome as per usual.

The 3K gold village would cost an extra turn to visit. Darros costs none because he doesn't exist!

[Darrman]

"I need to buy a sword. Hey, Saji, sell those axes we have, they're useless!" LTCers make money in the most turnsaving ways. Selling the bench's weapons!

[Espinosa]

I'd say the Firestone is worth is.

Banutu OHKOs anything in this game, or 2HKOs as Dragonbreath pierces defense. He takes one turn to transform, but he deals something like 22 damage to any unit. Though he can't double. If you feel like you don't need such a unit though (because you're gonna sheeda the game, even with no win spear), don't go for it. :D

It does look like obtaining the Fire Stone cuts a turn from Chiki's chapter in a warpless strategy. However, 1 turn spent here is worth a lot more than 1 turn spent in chapter 4, what with all the important chests like Dragon Whip, or the Orbs, around.

Banutu's combat is really good, I must admit, and could help out a lot in some instances, but I'm not sure if I'm willing to spend that one turn to obtain the stone. Feeding cav kills to Marth in chapter 4 is also best done while skipping the stone, and one of the biggest worries is having Marth grow into a competent combat unit.

It seems like some of the Warp usage should be left ambiguous because Marth's strength is a variable that brings about a lot of uncertainty.

[Refa]

I like what you did with the video. Makes it fast paced while also allowing people to see the stat minutiae.

[Topazd]

Rigging def for Marth could have the detrimental side effect of the generic mooks opting to block his way to the throne instead of suiciding on him; playing through the game with a hacked Marth caused this a lot, most memorably in C17 where Michalis was dead on turn 1 EP but the throne inaccessible until quite a while later. Who knows, a low-def Marth could be a blessing in disguise?

I really don't get why Mariones is so bulky - the armoured bosses to follow are all more or less frailer until like, Jiol enters the picture.

Edited September 2, 2015 by Topazd

[Espinosa]

Yeah, but you're saying that because you are playing with a 20 defence Marth, which is a bit of an extremity and not a possible anomaly you can expect to encounter on your run. The problem we do seek to resolve is 7-ish defence Marth surviving a bunch of enemies with wildly different atk ganging up on him on the same turn.

With a 20% defence growth, it's quite hard to have Marth proc both strength and defence on the same level-up (10% chance). His speed is already good enough because swords are light and enemies like having 0 AS in this game, but for the purposes of dodgetanking speed and luck are equally important (luck actually factors in more because weapon weight won't reduce it). HP Growth is 90%, so it will usually proc, but he isn't really getting enough levels to accumulate much of it due to having to seize constantly (I do try my best to arrange kills for him). Angelic Robe and Dracoshield help, but aren't exactly immediately available.

Mariones has 39 HP/17 def. That's 37 atk necessary to 2HKO him, or 27 atk for a 4HKO (1 crit +1 hit). Armour Killer has 18 effective Might, so Marth needs just 9 strength (he has 7 @ lv. 3.66 at the start of chapter 4, and he kills 3 cavs on the first turn assuming he doesn't visit Banutu's village, so I should be able to get him 2 strength level-ups until then) to ORKO with a crit.

Now, as for surviving the enemy phase... General!Mariones has 22 atk/104 hit before avoid with Steel Lance, Mage has 7 mag/94 hit with Thunder, 2 Archers have 14 atk/98 hit and 11 atk/108 hit respectively. Marth? 20 HP/7 def/0 res/14 avo at the start of chapter 4. Ehm yeah, I don't see him surviving at all tbqh, and he needs to survive AND crit.

I guess we won't be warpskipping chapter 5 either then!

[Topazd]

Yeah, but I can see even as low as 11 defence backfiring on Marth in C17 (Knight Killer pegs only have 11atk), although I doubt your Marth in this particular run will have enough defence for it to become a widespread issue, haha.

Oh well, the Reblow/Robe/5000G are bound to come in handy, at least.

[Espinosa]

Chapter 16 appears to be one of the toughest chapters in the entire game. You need to recruit Est first (by visiting the Hammerne village), then Marth needs to move to the other side of the mountain to seize, by which time Lawrence should be recruited by Sheeda and Camus should somehow manage to die (Killer Bow!Kashim? idk). The enemies next to Camus are also stupidly tough, and the ballisticians' actions don't make any sense at all (their range is supposed to be 3~10 according to the site but they aren't too eager to shoot for some reason anyway, even if I place my fragile Rena in their supposed range).

edit: Camus even has 65 avoid... Just what the hell...

Edited September 2, 2015 by Espinosa

[X-Naut]

edit: Camus even has 65 avoid... Just what the hell...

15 Luck plus gate's stupid 30 Avoid plus weapon weight has no effect on Avoid in this game.

[Nintales]

Chapter 16 is basically Tiki's playground. Manaketes are way stronger in FE3 than they'll ever be in the remakes. (Aside from that Tiki 1-turn of H5 finals)

[Espinosa]

15 Luck plus gate's stupid 30 Avoid plus weapon weight has no effect on Avoid in this game.

Thanks for this observation; looks I've been spreading misinformation by claiming it's AS (as contrasted to 'speed') that affects avoid. I did check the Calcs page here on SF, but ingame I played around with Minerva holding the Javelin she comes with and a lighter lance, and must've misread something because I deemed the Calcs page erroneous regarding the avoid calculations.

Double-checked it again and yeah, it's right. I guess Marth will have a tiny bit more avoid in that chapter 5 situation I outlined. Could be worth it going for a warpskip there, I guess.

Chapter 16 is basically Tiki's playground. Manaketes are way stronger in FE3 than they'll ever be in the remakes. (Aside from that Tiki 1-turn of H5 finals)

idk Chiki has 0 AS, which leaves her easily doubled by everyone threatening, and doesn't really OHKO anyone other than ballisticians (who are extremely weak defensively in this game).

About Chiki's defence-ignoring attack though... Won't that pierce Mediuth's defence AND ignore attack reduction on half? 'Cause I'd rather not bother training Kashim at all. Not promoting bow users is directly linked to shaving off turns, and waiting for so long to promote a 6 mov bowlocked unit with mediocre combat at base just doesn't seem worth it.

Of course, somebody still has to kill Camus, and that's a problem, but we could take more than one turn doing that. It seems that 11 move Marth needs 4 turns to seize after crossing all the mountains and forests, so a warpskip would be preferred, and it's one of the most efficient warp turn-saves lategame.

And killing Camus? Anyone with 19 AS holding the Miracle Sword / Mercurius that Est brought doubles him (have Est throw it into Marth's supply, warp Marth up, retrieve it and tradechain to where Camus is standing, clear one of the 3 stationary paladins out of the way and add some more damage in). This is idle theorycraft I suppose, but I like exercising my imagination in this way lol.

[Topazd]

Tiki's attack is halved and Medeus has 15 defence against her, sadly.

[Espinosa]

So I finished my first test-run in which I tried to clarify where warping would be a good idea. In Michael's chapter, I didn't find any Knight Killer pegs, but there were several Javelin ones with 15 atk. Marth reaching 15 def is kind of a feat even with a Dracoshield investment, and we could also always opt against investing boosters, so I think they could decide to target him anyway - survival will be a better problem then, what with having low HP.

It's worth noting that Michael doesn't stand on the gate and will move wherever you position Marth, and you could place him on a terrain square for extra avoid. It seems that this is the only map where enemies' AI is programmed to occupy the gate so that Marth cannot seize - I slowly killed like 20 of them, all trying to block Marth's path to seize after killing Michael, and then 20 more came as reinforcements, so I couldn't advance until I warped Samson to temporarily occupy the seize square.

I'll probably re-run the game with a Marth with more modest defences to see if he has any chances at all to seize on the 2nd turn without any support, but it seems like a 2-warp strat could well be required.

I didn't get much of a taste of Gharnef's chapter due to capped defences, but you're in reach of a ton of enemies that you could fail to dodge or continue to be hit by due to having excessively good offence. A bulky Marth with good luck dodging could probably survive the first turn to seize on the next. idk I'd also probably need to arrange that the weapon he kills the fake seize tile Gharnef with breaks on the second hit (which also kills him), reducing the number of enemies that can target Marth. A 2-warp 1-turn strat is always possible, but is it worth it?

As for the final map, I started to wonder if a 3-turn strat wouldn't result in anyone dying because there are some really competent enemies rushing in to attack. At least some of the Manaketes can be killed before they actually get a chance to transform! And there's always Ellis with her Ohm Staff...

[Topazd]

I was wondering if the Bishops would start healing Medeus and make the 3-turn more difficult. Going by what we know now I'd say Final and maybe C17 are worth using two warps in, but otherwise I'd be hesitant.

And yeah, the Knight Killer peg thing was my bad - they're (turn 10+) reinforcements only, as this page states.

[Espinosa]

There's exactly one Bishop with healing (before the reinforcements arrive on turn 6 or so) in the final chapter and he's one of the three enemies standing right next to Mediuth whom you have to remove on turn 1 (you can wait for the Manakete to attack you). Should Marth choose to improve his chances of survival and kill the untransformed Mammacute instead, we needn't really worry about the Physic Bishop because Mediuth can be killed in one turn. His throne recovery is also just 7 HP/per turn, so we might have a chance to kill him on enemy phase instead, reducing the heavy reliance on both crits and the right Earth Orb procs.

Mediuth is basically the last of our worries given a strong enough Marth (which he should end up being advancing 11 tiles per turn in the second half). Camus is a huge headache however, Michael's chapter could play out in so many unexpected ways, and there's a lot of uncertainty regarding which warpskips are remotely possible knowing Marth's earlygame impotence and which promotion items can be skipped.

At least now I know I can just not bother with Kashim and just train a bunch of fliers (Sheeda and Minerva come first), a couple cavs (Abel has grown into a swell unit as of C4, and I guess I'll also use Hardin as my second cav), Oguma and probably Julian? I have a feeling I am going to want him to take a hit or two.

[Espinosa]

Okay, I guess the chapter 5 2-turn warpskip isn't happening. I may have calculated nicely that Marth 4HKOs the boss, or one-rounds with one crit and one regular hit with the Armorslayer, but Marth's 6 skl doesn't give him particularly good chances of actually proccing one, and 77 displayed hit (pretty sure this game is using the 1 RN system like its two SNES successors), coupled with unreliable (at best) chances of survival means our odds of success really are astronomical. Rapier having 3 less mt doesn't make it worthwhile to try as an alternative, really.

Marth can technically try to attack both on PP and EP, facing 66 hit from the boss, but even though he 4HKOs, he will need the 6% crit to proc anyway because of the throne healing.

Marth hasn't proc'd a single point of skill in his level-ups with a 40% growth; maybe it would've been a little different with 9 or 10 skill, but I was worried about the other stats more...

So I guess I'll be saving the Warp and clearing the map normally. Also, I did decide to train Kashim after all.

[Espinosa]

...and yet I've just got the 2-turn after a surprisingly modest number of attempts. Some other unnecessary luck-reliant things happened on the same clear, too. After grabbing the dodge + bosskill, I trembled that the remaining enemies would occupy the seize tile, but they did no such thing.

Topazd, are you sure chapter 6 can be 3-turned with a single Warp after recruiting Banutu? Because no matter where Sheeda starts, she cannot target the boss at pointblank range on turn 3, and nor can Jeigan if he tries to rush south with his 10 move - most of the castle area is 'blocked' and Sheeda has to move all the way around. She would reach the boss if she could start from Marth's fixed position however.

I guess it's a 4-turn then, with Marth getting surprisingly many attempts at self-improvement. The bosskill/survival is still not simple in a 4-turn clear.

[Topazd]

Yeah, it's theoretically possible if a mount has 19str and gets a Javelin crit lmao. Admittedly the castle tile graphics are awfully misleading wrt where they can/can't be crossed, without scrutinizing the map proper I had thought the Armour Killer approach to be viable.

EDIT I also took a shot at C17 with a 14 def Marth and that works enemy behaviour-wise, at least. A draco will block your way without attacking if you're one tile down or left from the throne, but won't if it's the tile to the right, for some reason. As to what chances of survival can be accomplished within the context of this run, I don't think I can make a guess.

Edited September 6, 2015 by Topazd

[Espinosa]

C17 still looks like the one map you'd want to use two Warps on just because of how threatening surviving the enemy phase is. In the last map, having a ~20 str Kashim able to wield Partia saves 2 turns, so that Warp is almost a given.

Anyway, we both brainfarted yesterday because chapter 6 IS 3-turnable. Wendell just needs to use his better move to Warp Marth on turn 2 after he visits Banutu's village, and Marth should crit the boss with the Rapier on EP. It's less reliable and it deprives folks like Abel and Sheeda of 1 level or so worth of exp, but low turn counts is what we're interested in here.

The OP now contains my current turn counts. I've 2-turned chapter 7 and got myself a save in the following chapter, which is a really interesting one, but I wasn't happy about Marth's Shin level-up (which he insists on repeating everytime I get him to 4HKO the boss with hit+crit). Hardin also whiffed one of his Steel Sword attacks, failing to grab the kill, but that's nowhere as near important, since the availability of promotion items makes this more of a Marth + fliers + cavs rush game than a Paladin rush one. Abel WILL promote in chapter 10 and kick butt, though.

I also feel guilty for using Jeigan when I can more or less make do without him for the entire game, though it's a little early to tell - maybe his movement will be an advantage in Minerva's chapter. If he's not shielding units from harm or chipping in so that others can get the kill, his 10/0% growths mean training him basically just wears your inventory out and little else.

I have really high hopes for Minerva btw. Proccing Sheeda's strength is sorta nice but not something you can rely on, while Minerva's growth can actually be confided in. And she's promoted in outdoor maps before the absurdly late C15 whip!

In all honesty, Sheeda being a cav wouldn't be that much worse considering it's really just chapters 9, 12, 16, 19, maybe 13, where her flight is very useful, and Minerva also exists in all of these maps. She'll be a good deal better than Paola though, in spite of that low HP of hers...