Conquest Difficulty Dilemma

[semolinaro]

When it comes to fire emblem, I would say I'm a devoted casual fan. I love the series but don't consider myself experienced enough to do well in classic mode on the 3DS games (PoR wasn't so bad since the difficulty wasn't that high).

I've played and beaten conquest several times since it came out, and all of them have been on normal/casual mode since my last run, which I completed on hard. I want to get the experience that people play conquest for and play on hard/classic. But I'm only on chapter seven and I'm ready to rip my hair out. This must be my fourteenth reset, but I can't seem to prevent my important guys from dying (I don't care much for Jakob since you'll get lots of healers down the road but when Silas and Elise kick the bucket that early I gotta reset). I'm getting really frustrated but I don't wanna give up because I believe I'm capable of completing a hard/classic Conquest run. Does practice really make perfect and I just gotta work through it until I get the hang of it?

Edited August 29, 2016 by semolinaro

[kantoorfarina]

The main trick to doing well in FE, I would say, is to keep trying and when you lose, don't just get frustrated and boot the chapter up again. When you lose, think about what went wrong and what you could have done to avoid it

[Avalanche]

Conquest!Hard as your first Classic run in Fates is bound to be pretty rough. I will say that the mentality you have in Casual is a lot different than the one you should have in Classic. Your units are not expendable anymore, you can't zerg rush and expect to win ect. Heck, I thought Sacred Stones Eirika Normal was brutal after I jumped into it after my first playthrough of Awakening (on Normal!Casual) and it took me a while to really feel comfortable with my units lives being constantly on the line. It does take time and practice to really get a feel for playing Classic, but it is so satisfying to clear a hard Chapter with everyone alive, so rewarding. Personally, I would absolutely recommend Normal!Classic Conquest before Hard, even if you have played Conquest before. A lot of the gimmicks on Hard and Lunatic will be absent, but it is a nice way of transitioning into Hard Classic.

What issues are you running into specifically? I'm sure plenty of us would be willing to give you some advice.

Edited August 29, 2016 by Avalanche

[semolinaro]

So I just finished chapter 7 and only lost Jakob which is pretty good, but I felt I didn't use any special strategy and only won based on luck since one of the faceless missed a fatal blow that would have killed Arthur and Effie got a crit on the paired up ones. I think you're right Avalanche, I'm gonna take it down to normal but I wanna start learning how to enjoy Fire Emblem in classic mode as well. It's an entirely different feeling to play and I even like it, I just wish I wasn't so bad at it haha.

Edited August 29, 2016 by semolinaro

[Avalanche]

So I just finished chapter 7 and only lost Jakob which is pretty good, but I felt I didn't use any special strategy and only won based on luck since one of the faceless missed a fatal blow that would have killed Arthur and Effie got a crit on the paired up ones. I think you're right Avalanche, I'm gonna take it down to normal but I wanna start learning how to enjoy Fire Emblem in classic mode as well. It's an entirely different feeling to play and I even like it, I just wish I wasn't so bad at it haha.

Normal!Classic Conquest is a nice mix of being Challenging, yet manageable. It's a lot more forgiving than Hard!Classic Conquest for someone just starting to play on Classic.

I know you mentioned that Jakob died, but I truly feel that one of the things that helped me improve my FE game was actually resetting whenever someone died. It made me consider all of my options and rethink my strategy until I found the most reliable, safe way through each Chapter. Plus, excluding kids, you don't really get any more healers until Flora, so I'd say Jakob is worth the restart. That's just me though.

Edited August 29, 2016 by Avalanche

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

There's two things that are rather important to doing well on Classic. The first is positioning. When you first load up a map, look for problem areas or enemies. Rearrange your units to have a head start in either reaching or preparing for those problems. Look for chokepoints. The less facings your tanks get attacked from, the longer they can hold the position. Also be aware of where you might be able to retreat if things start going wrong. One specific thing that Fates puts particular emphasis on is the auras. Units kinda throw them around a lot from the beginning, meaning there can be a huge durability difference between a good and a haphazard formation. For instance, Effie is really durable, but repeated attacks from the Faceless will wear her down, even discounting the poison-type skills. However, if Elise is sitting right beside her, with Jakob also within 2 tiles, she's taking 5 less damage. This makes it so that the Faceless can barely even scratch her. Find a good chokepoint on that map and she can wall off a large portion of the enemies indefinitely (just remember to heal through the poison damage).

The second is formulae. Knowing who can tank or deal exactly how much damage lets you be more efficient about who goes where and who stands how far into the enemy attack range. Willingness to do all the computations manually means you can know 2-3 turns in advance how a particular engagement is likely to play out. This also assists with positioning, since you can do stuff like divert other units to help a formation that is about to run into trouble or just plain have the right formation headed in the right direction from the start.

[Darros]

Remember the chapter with the pots? Unless you're reclassing someone to troubadour or shrine maiden/monk having Jakob dead may be a decision you'll regret. Conquest is definitely one of the harder Fire Emblem games, even on normal. I played it recently on normal/phoenix ((after clearing normal/classic)) and I can definitely say it was so much less of a headache, but it felt very unrewarding to complete at the end compared to classic.

[Mackc2]

Conquest Hard is honestly quite the challenge even for someone who had beaten all the other routes on Lunatic. My recommendations is to use the button to bring up all the enemy attack ranges and then highlighting particular enemy's you don't want to fight by clicking on them and then place a unit in a spot where they will be out of that units attack range but within the attack ranges of the rest admittedly conquest doesn't give you many opportunities to do this as the enemies are placed so that multiple will be able to hit you anywhere in which case it is useful to know who your tanks are and have them paired up sitting in the enemies range so they can drag the enemy towards you for the rest of your team to kill. Also be careful with your placement of elise never place her in an attack range unless it is a mage but don't put her too far back as her personal skill is very useful for not making everyone die. Also you need to recognise choke points and such, for example on chapter 7 you can block off the top route completely with effie and just have elise heal her every now and again so you have less to worry about.

Edited August 29, 2016 by Mackc2

[semolinaro]

Restarted from branch of fate on normal and have all units intact, currently working through chapter 8 and it's going really well. It's pretty easy right now but that's probably because I've played it on normal so many times. But hard was brutal, those faceless with grisly wound were absolutely deadly.

[lollipopocoaster]

CQ!Hard is really difficult, it really is. You have to think several steps ahead and, early-game at least, make use of both attack and guard stance. Later on, the guard stance is more relevant (at least according to my experience). But, as Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi said above, positioning is key. Absolutely vital. He gave other really great tips as well, take them into consideration if you decide to give Hard another try later on!

I think the best way to get a feel how to play CQ!Classic (on either difficulty) actually is to play one of the older FE games, haha. I'd recommend one of the GBA games or Path of Radiance on Hard, or perhaps Radiant Dawn on Normal.

In any case, good luck!! <3

Edited August 30, 2016 by lollipopocoaster

[FoliFF]

Restarted from branch of fate on normal and have all units intact, currently working through chapter 8 and it's going really well. It's pretty easy right now but that's probably because I've played it on normal so many times. But hard was brutal, those faceless with grisly wound were absolutely deadly.

Just you wait when Lunge gets thrown into the mix. Especially on those pesky ninjas... My God what a disgusting skill. Well at least on lunatic which I'm playing on and I just hit chapter 13. First time I'm playing conquest too, so it will be fun and lots of rage.

Edited August 30, 2016 by FoliFF

[shadowofchaos]

Just you wait when Lunge gets thrown into the mix. Especially on those pesky ninjas... My God what a disgusting skill. Well at least on lunatic which I'm playing on and I just hit chapter 13. First time I'm playing conquest too, so it will be fun and lots of rage.

Lunge/Kirikomi is absolutely disgusting because the AI can afford bad positioning from essentially suicide units to screw up yours.

Two ranged switches, and you're essentially in "Only tanks should be here" territory.

Edited August 30, 2016 by shadowofchaos

[TempestStorm]

I'd highly recommend building the staff store first. That way you can drug up Corn/Jakob/Odin if you hit a problem point.

Chapter 7 isn't that bad on hard (other than the rng), even when using just Corn/Jakob/Elise. A drugged up +def/-luck Jakob!Corn in guard stance beat the chapter with Elise support for me in a draft, but I had to make sure that the seal faceless stack was hit with freeze three times.