Alastor plays and ranks the whole series! Mission Complete! ...For now.

[Shadow Mir]

8 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

That map crossed a line you do not ever, ever cross. Under no circumstances is it acceptable to lie to the player about how to win and then throw an ambush spawn at them to punish them for doing what you told them to. If Three Houses didn't have divine pulse, anyone who suggested that end-of-map twist would probably have been thrown out a window. But of course the game does have design pulse, which apparently convinced the devs that bad map design doesn't exist anymore as long as you can't lose.

I guess, but I still think it's not the worst this series has served up. Like I said, just wait until you go to 24x, where you have to go if you want Eyvel back. You're very likely to change your tune when you realize what bullshit you have to contend with. Besides, Radiant Dawn pulled something similar in part 3 endgame (you're told to rout the enemy, but the chapter terminates once 80 units have been defeated, whether they were yours, Daeins, or greens. Admittedly, in this case it's fortunate for you, as Nailah is among the enemies).

Edited December 31, 2019 by Shadow Mir

[Flere210]

The petra paralogue can be reasonably be beaten whitout cheese or turnwheels, even if require some luck. 24x is just something that you either warpskip(and is a cheesy, blind warpskip in a FoW map) or abuse save states because otherwise it's just not playable.

Edited December 31, 2019 by Flere210

[Eltosian Kadath]

17 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

I'm just standing here wondering how it's physically possible to create a game seemingly never intended to be played a first time.

Thracia got its hardest game in the series reputation from how it plays blind, but the more you play it and understand it the better the game gets. Thracia and its maps play by their own crazy and insane rules, and if you understand Thracia it is a fun, challenging, and rather fair, but if you don't know Thracia, than it has little mercy on you.

 

9 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

I'm torn. I really want all that stuff, but I'm also really curious how the game is balanced for people who don't know the conditions for getting all the goodies the Gaiden chapters throw at you. Because that seems like an absolutely ridiculous amount of resources to lock behind a time limit you can't even guess is there until you fail it, and can still easily not notice is a thing due to how the chapter ends. It honestly feels like merely knowing the Gaiden chapters exist and how to get them makes the game massively easier, and... I'm not sure I like that, game design wise.

The Gaidens really do have some vital stuff hidden inside them that should probably not be optional. You need to complete the first gaiden to get Safiya and Lifis (the first healer and thief), plus it gives your first crusader scroll. You get Asvel from the second gaiden (the first mage) and two crusader scroll to boot (one of which you get two chapters later by saving an NPC). The third gives Dagdar, your first prepromtote after the Manster escape arc, plus Tanya and another crusader scroll. The second base magic wielder Olwen is hidden behind the fourth, not to mention Alfred making the first three prepromoted hidden behind gaiden, plus access to another crusader scroll. I could keep going, but that starts getting into spoiler territory, and I think you get the idea. To be fair the way they set them up, you generally know you missed something if you missed the gaiden, which encourages player to get them through resets or future playthroughs. The first is tied to villages that give loot that you know you missed. Similar idea but with escaping green units for the second gaiden. The third is less clear, but it gives music cues, has numerous story hints, and the lack of Dagdar and Tanya when they clearly should join makes it obvious you missed something. Similar sort of idea with the next two, as you are clearly missing a character if you miss the gaiden, and there are events that tell you when you missed it or are on the right path.

 

1 hour ago, Flere210 said:

24x is just something that you either warpskip(and is a cheesy, blind warpskip in a FoW map) or abuse save states because otherwise it's just not playable.

Spoiler

Its not something a blind player will likely pickup on, but neither of the places you might want to warp to are particularly blind warps. Plus Thracia should have already drilled into you that using the warp staff is simply a tool in your arsenal, not something particularly cheesy for this game. The escape point is always shown as a red arrow even in the FoW, so sending someone over to kill the boss and status staves around it is not all that blind of a warp. The trap room is visible if you use a torch around your starting areas, with stairs adjacent to the warping mages (you would want to neutralize them anyway), indicating where enemies spawn in that you can block. As for the warp tiles, saving a rescue staff user for the end of your move, and always giving them something to do (as trap tiles only trigger from the use of the wait command) or having them go to a space that was occupied before to make sure it is safe, that way they can always save someone trapped.

 

[Flere210]

It's the penultimate battle, you may not have waro left, and even if you do, you don't know if you are going to find manageble enemies or a deathtrap if you warp in the dark. Hell for all you know, you may warp your unit in a trap tile. Blind warping is the epitome of "trial and error" and remain like that even if the game for once did not throw a curveball at you.

[Jotari]

35 minutes ago, Flere210 said:

It's the penultimate battle, you may not have waro left, and even if you do, you don't know if you are going to find manageble enemies or a deathtrap if you warp in the dark. Hell for all you know, you may warp your unit in a trap tile. Blind warping is the epitome of "trial and error" and remain like that even if the game for once did not throw a curveball at you.

It's not possible to warp onto a warp tile. Or rather, warping onto a warp tile won't warp your unit as warp tiles only activate if the unit waits.

[Flere210]

I did not know that after many playtroughs, how is a blind player going to know?

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

On 12/27/2019 at 6:43 PM, Alastor15243 said:

JESUS CHRIST THOSE BALLISTAE ARE STRONG ENOUGH TO NEARLY TWO-SHOT ALFRED. IF BOTH OF THEM HIT HE WOULD HAVE BEEN AT ONE HP.

...But something even worse happened. He didn't take two shots.

He took one shot, and thus refused to use his vulnerary because he was still over half HP, even though now two hits will kill him!

Even the stats of these two trap ballistas aren't default?

If this is the case that one of the ballistas has >25 attack, which means both could kill him in one enemy phase, then I have nothing more to say about this chapter.

I just have played this chapter and both had 25 attack which would be the maximum possible damage Fred can take to survive two shots.

 

Also I was a "genius" and stole Fred's vulnerary because I forgot he was a NPC and no playable unit.

Thanks to several move agains and Fred dodging 1/2 ballistas each turn, I could finish this chapter two turns after he had become a NPC. 

I skipped the torch staff, but whatever...

[Alastor15243]

36 minutes ago, Zemuria said:

Even the stats of these two trap ballistas aren't default?

If this is the case that one of the ballistas has >25 attack, which means both could kill him in one enemy phase, then I have nothing more to say about this chapter.

I just have played this chapter and both had 25 attack which would be the maximum possible damage Fred can take to survive two shots.

I didn't see them vary from 25 attack in my experience, but I only did this map once. The issue is more that, say, for instance (I don't know if these are the exact numbers) he has 31 HP and 10 def, allowing him to just baaaarely take two hits. But then if he only takes one hit, he doesn't heal, because at 16/31 HP he's still over half health and so the AI decides it's a waste to use a vulnerary, totally ignorant of the fact that he's now in mortal peril. And then Alfred went down like a chump the next turn when both attacks hit. Plus, the fact that he insists on standing still in range of both of them instead of running to only be in range of one.

Anyway...

Okay,  so, I just realized that I still have my chapter 11 save. If I'm going to redo chapter 12, do you want me to redo chapter 11 as well? It's starting to feel kind of pointless to judge this game based on how penetrable it is for a first-time player when the general consensus seems to be "It isn't. At all.". So it's starting to feel more like I shouldn't be playing this blind either, and that I should just brace myself to give this game a really, really bad grade in the ironmannability section, and just do every gaiden chapter for completion's sake to have the best-informed assessment of what the game has to offer.

If that sounds good to you guys, lemme know, and I'll do it. I'll give you guys another day to make your opinions heard.

Edited January 1, 2020 by Alastor15243

[Espurrhoodie]

I feel like it would be a good idea, yes.

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

51 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

I didn't see them vary from 25 attack in my experience, but I only did this map once.

Oh, then I misread the former post, my bad.

Then it's default because they both had 25 attack in my run as well.

[Eltosian Kadath]

13 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

Okay,  so, I just realized that I still have my chapter 11 save. If I'm going to redo chapter 12, do you want me to redo chapter 11 as well? It's starting to feel kind of pointless to judge this game based on how penetrable it is for a first-time player when the general consensus seems to be "It isn't. At all.". So it's starting to feel more like I shouldn't be playing this blind either, and that I should just brace myself to give this game a really, really bad grade in the ironmannability section, and just do every gaiden chapter for completion's sake to have the best-informed assessment of what the game has to offer.

If that sounds good to you guys, lemme know, and I'll do it. I'll give you guys another day to make your opinions heard.

I am surprisingly torn, as I do kinda like the ironman light feel you have given your run by moving on, but I am a bit curious what you think of both of these Gaiden chapters, plus the characters that join in them. I think I will end up caving a say have at repeating them with a bit of foreknowledge.

[Alastor15243]

I'm surprised more people haven't chipped in to this discussion.

[Alastor15243]

Thracia Day 17: Chapter 11 (again)

I've decided that yes, as much as I wanted to try playing this blind, I've already learned enough about this game to know that I am not going to be kind to this game in the ironmannability score, and nothing I discover by playing this game without the power of hindsight or guides is going to change that. So essentially, instead of continuing to play this game as I've been playing it, instead I'm going to try to be fairer to the rest of the game's categories and judge it based on how it plays beyond this blind and fumbling first playthrough. So I'll be redoing chapters 11 and 12 to get those gaiden chapters and the ridiculous amount of goodies hidden within them that I missed. And from now on I'm going to go into every chapter knowing what the gaiden requirements are from the get-go.

Speaking of which, apparently one of the gaiden chapter requirements is that somebody in my army, at least one person, has been captured. I've heard about this one. It's a prison break chapter, isn't it? I'd like to see that one when we get there. So I guess I'll work out who I can safely let get captured before that chapter so I can get the gaiden chapter and break them out.

Also, because I just took a good look at the gaiden chapter requirements to make sure that I don't have to redo any chapters because I took too long, and apparently chapter 11 also has a turn limit for getting 11x, not just a “keep the idiot alive” limit. Turns out that the reason I heard the Galzus music last time I did this chapter was because I took more than 30 turns, so I have to assume that when you fail a gaiden chapter time limit, the music changes to Galzus's music.

I... am not a fan of this, for two reasons:

1: The music isn't right for it. It cheapens the impact it had when Galzus showed up when it just randomly starts playing out of nowhere in situations where there's pretty much guaranteed to not be many enemies left if you're taking that long. Something equally un-triumphant but less scary would probably be better suited for it.

2: If this really is the game trying to tell me I failed the time limit to get a gaiden chapter, it would be nice for the game to do that before it's too late. If it's not going to just completely leave it a fun secret for people to figure out on their own on replays or look up online, waiting until I fuck up to tell me I missed an opportunity is just obnoxious. Either tell me in advance so I can try to do it the first time, or don't tell me at all and let me figure it out later for added replay value. This halfway system is just the worst of both worlds. Granted, the game doesn't explicitly tell you that's what the music means, but even then, see point 1.

Okay, so this is gonna be a bit of a tight squeeze. I'm gonna need 10 turns to deal with the ballistae safely, which leaves only 20 turns to deal with all of those armor knights and then bum rush the exit in between those 10 turns. I think I'll be able to do it, but it would be really nice if my army didn't all start behind a bottleneck full of trees and thickets. Not that it stops me from getting some of my army in range of the starting units, but still. It's annoying to squeeze a dozen units through that tiny gap.

...As much as this map infuriates me, that first turn of the armor knights “acting casual” still brings me a truly stupid amount of glee.

It quickly became obvious the second I heard about the turn limit that I couldn't possibly feed all of these armor knights to Tanya, but I did what I could, and at least managed to get her her D rank in bows again. The ballistae should at least give her another level, and I should be able to kill some of the mages with her now that I know they don't move. And as usual, it helps that potshotting enemies she can't hurt still gives her a decent amount of chip exp.

Alright, got the trap activated and the doors opened on turn 10. It was almost insulting how easy it was to neutralize once I stole an extra key and used the one in storage. I then gave them to the handful of guys I had who could survive a turn of full ballistae fire, had Lara unlock one of the closer ones, and then rescue-dropped her to safety.

I know I complained about how ridiculous the challenge was once the trap was sprung, but now that I know what's coming, it's almost a joke how easily it was disposed of. And this is the fundamental problem with ambush spawns and “gotcha” moments in Fire Emblem games. They only ever work once. They only ever affect your first playthrough, and it's almost always to make it worse. It doesn't make your playthrough more fun unless it's something that the player can reasonably react to once the trap is sprung. Otherwise, in this case, it's just an instance of “Cool, now do it again because I said so and I'm an asshole.”

CNDIABISSAIAA aside, the next ten turns will be allotted to taking care of this ballistae and hoping that Alfred's AI doesn't find even more fascinating ways to be retarded.

…

...Funny I should say that...

So, both ballistae hit Alfred, ignoring Dagdar and Tanya's tempting, juicy butts, so fortunately this meant he used his vulnerary.

...Unfortunately, he did literally nothing else.

The doors were all unlocked, but he didn't budge an inch. I am deeply, deeply hoping that this is just that the game doesn't expect me to unlock all doors on the first turn and so he can't start moving that turn, or maybe that Orsin standing at the furthest square he could reach meant he didn't move at all. I am desperately hoping that this is not because Alfred can't handle something as complicated as using an item and moving on the same turn.

...Okay, that's curious. The turn after they opened, not only did Alfred start moving, but the ballisticians suddenly decided that Tanya (though not Dagdar) was a more tempting target than Alfred after all.

...Only for one turn though. Then they went right back to ganging up on Alfred next turn, leaving me with absolutely no idea what made the one ballistician switch to Tanya in the first place.

Now, viewer, if you're paying attention, you'll notice that this means that even in the absolute best case scenario, with a same-turn activating and deactivating of the doors, there is still a terrifyingly high chance of Alfred taking an un-healable amount of damage and then getting slaughtered in the three turns they get to shoot him before he gets out of their range.

So yeah, this is just... a terrible chapter all around. I'm super glad I got lucky this time around, and Alfred didn't get the same terrifyingly lethal two-round combo on any of the three turns.

And also fortunately, the remaining 10 turn time limit to grab the treasure and seize the throne wasn't that scary after that. Despite having to have Orsin take care of most of the javelin soldiers to save time, I even managed to get another level with Tanya from the combat. That said, she didn't get nearly as many level ups as last time. She has, however, kept below her fatigue limit, so I can try and use her in 11x to try and get her some more experience. I will make her usable yet!

But with that out of the way, I finish the map with one turn to spare, and now Augustus is just heaping on the praise for Leif's swift capture of the castle, and saying they have time to check the castle for prisoners. I wonder what they say if I make good time but Alfred dies? What's the excuse then for why we can't search the castle to do 11x?

But also, this is kind of annoying: the prep menu of the gaiden chapter, which the game went into immediately from the end of the last after the save screen, doesn't have a map button because it's fog of war. Even though there are exposed spaces from green units. But I can't tell which ones, because the tiny preparation menu is almost perfectly blocking my view of that room.

So, tune in tomorrow when we play chapter 11x:

...Balistrariae.

…

…

...Please tell me that doesn't mean this is an indoor, fog of war ballista chapter.

I can't even fathom how the game would try to justify firing siege weapons indoors, between rooms and through walls, but again, I have no more benefit of the doubt for this fucking game.

Edited January 2, 2020 by Alastor15243

[Alastor15243]

Thracia Day 18: Chapter 11x

So apparently the boss of the level made the same assumption about the chapter's name that I did. They're actually holes in the wall for people to shoot through, like embrasures.

I know it's super dumb to do this, but when one of the kids started crying about how the empire was going to send them to Bellhalla and “kill every last one of us”... I chuckled.

Oh shit. Olwen doesn't have her Dire Thunder tome. Naturally, since she's a prisoner, but that does complicate the matter of getting it, given it's a huge part of what makes her so useful. It's probably in a chest.

At any rate, this may just be because she's dismounted, but... wait, actually, lemme check...

...Nope! Her stats really are complete hot garbage for a level 2 prepromote. She apparently managed to reach promotion level as a mage with 1 strength, 8 magic, 4 skill, 8 speed, 5 luck and 0 defense. That is almost an impressive achievement considering her growth rates are actually pretty good. But if I'm going to use her at all, I'm gonna have to slap a few crusader scrolls on her almost constantly.

That aside, it is a huge relief to have a second magic user in my party. Asbel's been doing all of the heavy lifting in that department, and while he's amazing, he can't be in literally every chapter, and it's nice to have someone he can sub out with. Especially one who's on a horse.

And on the plus side, she's got a great thunder magic weapon level, which means that next time I get bolting, she'll be able to use it. I'm starting to wish I found a way to nab the one in chapter 10.

Alright, time to use the torch and see what we're dealing with...

...Aaaaaaaaand I hate this map already.

Yet again it's another fog of war map involving just hurling a shitton of enemies at us in the dark. In this case, it's a hallway of javelin-wielding soldiers blocking a narrow corridor lined with archers and mages shooting through the walls on either side. I'm going to have to either take this slow or rely on dodgetanking in order to get out of here alive, and I'm concerned that there may be a time limit to get Olwen. But let's take it slow first, since that'd be better for my team, and see if that works. It would suck to rush it only to find I could have taken it slow the whole time. It's a gaiden chapter, after all, meaning there's no punishment for taking too long to complete it beyond what happens in the chapter itself.

...I hope.

I have Selphina and Tanya start working their way through the enemies on either side, and I'm gonna see if I can use this opportunity to get Lithis some bait experience.

...Hell, actually, since we'll be here a while, now that I know where everything is, I'm gonna reset and not use the torch staff until later, when the coast is actually clear. Because I think I'd waste a lot of that initial torch use just getting past these enemies safely.

Alright, so enemies start attacking Olwen, which is a problem, because I can't fucking heal her with physic. But Alfred arrives to save her and the children as a blue unit under my control at the beginning of turn 2. Let's see if Alfred can make it there in time without warp staff abuse. Because I don't see how it's physically possible to make it there within the 3 turns she can die in if her evasion doesn't hold out (which it isn't, as things currently stand).

Alright, Alfred made it just barely in time. It's entirely up to Olwen's evasion, which I think is psychotically stupid since there's nothing you can do to get there in three moves beyond warping, so unless you use the warp staff, there's always a chance she'll die before you can get to her, and literally no smart decisions on your part will change that.

But thankfully, Alfred has Olwen's Dire Thunder in his inventory, and once we join up, Asbel has a spare thunder tome he can give her too, to save uses. The second I get her, I'm gonna see how much exp she gains, and work out which scrolls would be the best to give her.

And the boss leader has TWO siege tomes. Both bolting and meteor.

...And he'll attack the children with them the second you let them out. So you have to neutralize him BEFORE you can rescue Olwen. And here I was trying to save myself some trouble by trying to guess the “you didn't have to do that, we're not that heartless” moments the game seems to expect me to psychically predict like the game is some kind of stereotypical toxic, passive-aggressive girlfriend. Alas, curse my hopes that this was gonna be another one of those things, like with Eyvel in the colosseum or the numerous enemies who don't move because if they did you'd be utterly slaughtered if you tried to approach them with anything but cheese tactics or dumb luck. Nope. The one time I trust the game not to be an asshole, it of course behaves like an asshole, because the game is an asshole, and it is wholly unreasonable for a game so dedicated to being an asshole to base entire chapters like chapter 10 around not assuming the worst of it. So yeah, I just have to assume the worst of the enemy at all times, even when it makes the game outrageously more un-fun and tedious than It needs to be.

Restarting.

In hindsight, yes, the bishop was ordered to “dispose of” the prisoners, but I didn't interpret that as him doing it himself. Plus, again, it seemed like such an obnoxious and counterintuitive thing to expect of the player, to beat the whole map with Olwen still trapped in her cage.

...Or, you know, I can do what I normally do, and just have him waste all his siege tome uses on Lithis with the paragon sword while he has scrolls. Boom. Problem solved.

...Strangely, the siege tome boss hasn't been doing anything despite having units in range of him.

...For Christ's sake, is this another “Two-Face AI” thing?

...No, it seems to be an arbitrary “I'm waiting a specific number of turns before I go full ham with it” thing. Which is... I question that decision and what it accomplishes aside from an obnoxious “gotcha”.

More reinforcements come to hound Alfred, but thankfully he's pretty tough. His thunder sword is probably going to be in ruins by the time we get to him, though. That's fine. I have other magic swords.

What may be a concern is what happens when the sword breaks and he's stuck using a broken one. I guess I'll have to drop it. Not like I'll be using Hammerne on it.

Anyway, bolting and meteor are all used up, so time to go and secure the escape route for those kids and try to train up Olwen some, if she can gain much exp.

I use a third use of the torch staff just to make sure that I haven't missed any treasures. Two torch staff uses and a torch should be plenty until I can stock up on more torches in the next chapter.

Hmmm... I just noticed... Why does Leif have 2 leadership stars now? Is Dorius supplying one? I could've sworn it was only Augustus and Saias who did that.

Right at the end of the level, Nanna finally gains the staff rank necessary to use physic! Sweet!

…

...Okay, so I held off a bit on killing the Bishop in order to feed the kill to Olwen... and then he just ran off and escaped instantly in one turn because there was no one in his way. Also, he was talking to someone I didn't recognize and who isn't on the map because I killed everyone.

...Please, please, please tell me that hasn't cost me dearly down the road.

...I'm keeping this gaiden chapter save just in case, but for now, I'm done here. I'll have an opportunity to see what Olwen can do next map.

As for what I thought of the map... not too bad. It was dumb in a few ways, but nothing egregious. I do dislike something I've started to notice: that ever since the Manster escape arc, in my opinion the absolute peak of the game so far, this game seems to have forgotten how to challenge the player with anything other than sheer enemy numbers and bullshit gotcha gimmicks. I'm missing the kind of stuff the game pulled earlier, like those frantic fights with unfamiliar units and limited supplies in the Manster escape chapters, or sending continuous waves of small groups of powerful reinforcements threaten villages or to hound you when you take too long. Stuff that's manageable and realistic, but which keeps you continuously on your toes and forces you to think carefully about everything you do and don't do.

Next, time to warp-skip through chapter 12 and finish it before the beginning of the 20^th turn.

Edited January 20, 2020 by Alastor15243

[Eltosian Kadath]

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

Alright, so enemies start attacking Olwen, which is a problem, because I can't fucking heal her with physic. But Alfred arrives to save her and the children as a blue unit under my control at the beginning of turn 2. Let's see if Alfred can make it there in time without warp staff abuse. Because I don't see how it's physically possible to make it there within the 3 turns she can die in if her evasion doesn't hold out (which it isn't, as things currently stand).

Alright, Alfred made it just barely in time. It's entirely up to Olwen's evasion, which I think is psychotically stupid since there's nothing you can do to get there in three moves beyond warping, so unless you use the warp staff, there's always a chance she'll die before you can get to her, and literally no smart decisions on your part will change that.

To be fair there is a character whom you can get only if Olwen die or isn't recruited, to soften the blow of bad RNG.

 

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

...Strangely, the siege tome boss hasn't been doing anything despite having units in range of him.

...For Christ's sake, is this another “Two-Face AI” thing?

...No, it seems to be an arbitrary “I'm waiting a specific number of turns before I go full ham with it” thing. Which is... I question that decision and what it accomplishes aside from an obnoxious “gotcha”.

I have some vague memories of some oddities regarding his AI, something about player vision effecting when he starts to act, but its been a while since I have heard anything about it and forget the details.

 

6 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

In hindsight, yes, the bishop was ordered to “dispose of” the prisoners, but I didn't interpret that as him doing it himself. Plus, again, it seemed like such an obnoxious and counterintuitive thing to expect of the player, to beat the whole map with Olwen still trapped in her cage.

If Olwen only got hit once (or you have access to a physic) you can have the freshly recruited Olwen rescue one kid on the first turn they move, and Fred rescue the final one when it enters his range on the turn after to keep them safe from the boss. You need to be a little careful of the reinforcements, but you can free them from the cage early without too much risk.

 

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

Hmmm... I just noticed... Why does Leif have 2 leadership stars now? Is Dorius supplying one? I could've sworn it was only Augustus and Saias who did that.

Yep Augustus and Dorius are supplying one each.

 

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

...Okay, so I held off a bit on killing the Bishop in order to feed the kill to Olwen... and then he just ran off and escaped instantly in one turn because there was no one in his way. Also, he was talking to someone I didn't recognize and who isn't on the map because I killed everyone.

I never waited long enough for him to retreat. Generally I just walk up to him and capture him for the Bolting (as he has no 1-2 range, and is thus a free capture), but I have seen others attack him from across the wall just north of him to kill him faster. He doesn't hit very hard at all (as long as you got your scrolls spread out to avoid bolting crits) and you can easily out heal his damage output on the approach. Stealing/capturing some of the winds tomes from the mages that defend him is also a popular move, as wind tomes are very good in this game, and hard to come by. I wonder if I can find some lets play to see that escape quote.

 

Do you want the rundown of how to get the best loot out of 12x, or do you want to stay somewhat blind on it?

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

The thing what bugged me about 11x was why the enemy tried to kill Olwen in the cell. 

Or was that the kind of "execution" Kempf was talking about? 

 

In general I found chapter 11x not too bad, but it can be a pain if Alfred cannot oneround all the soldier chimps due to the big range of enemy stats in the game. 

[Jotari]

Are you making liberal use of of Pugi? I remember this being the chapter where I really realized how good it is.

[Shrimpica]

I'll say

Thracia's x chapters are some of the worst designed Maps in the series. Every single last one of them is just bad.

And honestly, Thracia's 'difficulty' is the whole lack of player info and kaga surprise bs. It's bullshit design, but the existence of Thracia's unique mechanics makes it bearable.

Honestly, i would recommend you not to do 21x. Just warpskip most late game maps to escape the amount of unannounced bs. Unless you wanna deal with stuff like teleporting ambush spawns.

Edit: oh can't wait to see your reaction on what a certain map does with green units *evil grin*

Edited January 4, 2020 by Shrimperor

[Alastor15243]

32 minutes ago, Shrimperor said:

Edit: oh can't wait to see your reaction on what a certain map does with green units *evil grin*

Unfortunately I may have been spoiled on this. I was so flabbergasted that I couldn't heal Alfred that I looked up ""can't heal green units" Thracia" or something to that effect, and one of the results, before clicking on it, said that some green units will attack you.

@Jotari It's always hard to pace the use of special weapons in a game you aren't ironmanning and haven't played before. His bhuj is mostly intact. Plus, Orsin was fatigued this map. I used Tanya to deal with those archers and mages, and she's up to a passable strength stat now! A little more and she'll easily be worth bringing whenever I bring Orsin.

Edited January 4, 2020 by Alastor15243

[𝐅𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐥]

2 hours ago, Shrimperor said:

Honestly, i would recommend you not to do 21x. Just warpskip most late game maps to escape the amount of unannounced bs. Unless you wanna deal with stuff like teleporting ambush spawns.

Chapter 24x would like to have a word with you.

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

I cannot remember chapter 21x being bad since it was not even FoW. Chapter 24x is a pain in the ass, but it is somehow required not to get screwed against the final boss. 

Spoiler

Although pure water / barrier and thief staff can prevent the issue. 

 

Anyways I am excited of your reaction for chapter 12x.

Spoiler

If you know about the gimmick, you have nothing to do aside of opening chests and recruiting one or two people. 

 

[Alastor15243]

Thracia Day 19: Chapter 12 (again)

To make up for the two days I skipped trying to gather feedback for what the hell to do about this whole situation, I'm doing chapters on the weekend this week.

First thing I notice: After I forgot to take the torch out of the inventory on my first deploy, I went back and confirmed that, yes, pressing start to deploy is an auto-save. Which begs the question of what the fuck the save button is even for.

I managed to nab Salem on the first turn, but unfortunately, since this game keeps you in the same mounted/dismounted state you were in last time, and I used Finn in chapter 11, he was dismounted and thus couldn't run away from the bandits right next to him. You may be able to mount and attack in the same turn, but you can't canto afterwards until you start the turn mounted. Hopefully he won't die. Especially since I'm pretty sure I need to keep Salem captured. But in the meantime, on to phase 2: Getting Karin over to Mareeta with the paragon sword and crusader scrolls so she can train up against the reinforcements over these 19 turns we have.

Also, my units work their way to the villages unimpeded by sleep, as Alba and his empty inventory prepares to go on a torch shopping spree. I'll also be using this opportunity to nab axes. Lots and lots of axes.

Thankfully it turns out the bandits by the gate are so outrageously weak that Finn slaughtered them even when carrying Salem. He had like a 65% dodge rate against them, which was impressive.

Unfortunately, Karin had terrible luck trying to fly through the forest to get to Mareeta, so I had to restart. I'll probably have to give her the torch just to make sure she gets to her destination safely.

...No, fuck it, flying her through these woods early on looks like it's gonna be impossible without taking a major gamble. So here's an idea I can't believe it took me two tries to think of: since Finn really only needs his brave lance for now... why not send the things I want to give Mareeta with him?

...And now I'm reminded how outrageously luck-based this strategy is once I stop getting lucky crits. All four 70% chance hits have to hit, or one has to crit at like a 10% chance, and ideally he has to not get poisoned. I finally managed it after several restarts and figuring out the exact space I need to warp him to by heart without constantly referencing a map of the level.

Okay, so, this is a recurring theme I'm noticing of the “villagers handing out staves” dialogue being super dumb. The dialogue for getting the silence staff seems to imply that 1, random peasant villagers have the magical know-how to use it, and that 2, this guy at least uses it to shut their kids up when it's time to take a nap. I mean, it's... kind of a funny joke? But not only does this yet again feel like something that would be in a parody of Fire Emblem rather than an actual Fire Emblem game, but that just raises so many questions of how common the ability to use staves is and how fucking common these things are and why the fuck I can only get my hands on a handful of these things if that's the case.

Aaaand mission accomplished! The houses are secured, and Mareeta now has the Baldur, Hezul, Odo and Neir scrolls, as well as the Paragon Sword to train up with!

Now all I need to do is get Olwen her Vantage scroll, fly Leif and Olwen across the river, get the magic ring, and get the fuck out of here when it's time to go.

And Callion got a move level up! WOO!

And he's now at level 20. I could promote him... but I barely see any point. He already has 9 move, and he's pretty much capped strength, and he actually has capped skill and speed. On top of that, his luck and con are both 14, so really, all this is going to do is make it less likely that I can scroll abuse his 9 defense to 20 by 20/20. Especially considering the fact that he has Paragon. So, keeping this in mind, I won't be promoting him until I get the Dain scroll. Or at least one more scroll that boosts defense. Speaking of which. I'm not sure how useful the Bragi scroll is going to be. The magic is nice, but that -10% to defense is pretty nasty. I might use it once I get the Dain scroll, or give it to units I've completely given up on making frontline combatants, like Nanna and Safiya.

I got the Vantage manual safely, and managed to give Olwen the kill with Dire Thunder, where she got a crit on the first attack, and a decent level up that even gained defense! Now I have 8 more turns to ferry Leif and Olwen across the lake and seize that gate while feeding kills to Mareeta.

Got the magic ring! It's funny how that woman is the only one who still has something to give Leif's army even if you don't save her little sister. Hell, I didn't even realize she had a loved one to save until I started wondering why there were three kids but only two “I ain't givin' you shit!” villages.

I was getting a little nervous when I realized I didn't quite remember how far away the gate was, but I can see it now, so I can literally do it on the last possible turn and milk this training for Mareeta for all it's worth.

Alright, that's all the reinforcements, according to the map. Time to seize!

Ooh! And Mareeta isn't even fatigued yet! Oh I am gonna have some fun with her next map!

...Unless, of course, people are right about next chapter, and I'm not going to have any fun at all.

...Let's check, shall we?

OH! Always a lovely sign, that the next map has a maximum deployment of 5, possibly including Leif.

Also, I just realized that Tina didn't come by with her snacks for Salem. Obviously, because Salem was captured. Poor girl. I hope she wasn't too spooked, stepping out with a plate of cookies only to see no one there, nothing but the black howling void stretching out in every direction.

Okay, so the deployment limit isn't including Leif. I can bring 6 units total to next map. Let's sneak a little peek, shall we? I'll bring Leif, Orsin, Tanya, Nanna, Asbel and Mareeta. What are we getting ourselves into here?

...Tina has a thief staff.

...As in a staff that lets you steal shit from other people if you have more magic than them.

...And she's going to use it on us.

...And this entire fort is crawling with thieves, archers, and fucking dancers.

Enemy fucking dancers.

That's... that's amazing. It's probably also going to be terrifying, but that's the kind of challenge I was hoping for! Scary tricks that make you plan your moves carefully, but which don't demand sheer luck or cheese to get through.

...Oh thank goodness. After using the torch staff and seeing the enemy lineup, I confirm that Tina only has 3 magic, so Mareeta, Leif, all my magic users, and some others probably, are completely immune. That's... an extreme relief. That's one thing I won't have to deal with. I'll just make sure everyone I bring to this map has at least three magic, and I should be fine.

Salem says the objective is to get him to talk to Pan. Who looks... outrageously good. Lithis will be slightly better than him when he promotes, except the fucker has five movement stars. Wow.

Now, aside from the thief staff, I can't see anything here that immediately screams to be that this will be a living hell or an utter shitshow of map design. But I'm wondering what would happen if I warped Salem to Pan...?

...Guess I'll find out tomorrow. Mostly for curiosity's sake. I already used one warp staff use. I'm not keen on using another unless it's the only solution I can find to a problem.

Edited January 4, 2020 by Alastor15243

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

You skipped a very important event for Lara. 

Spoiler

If she talks to Pahn, she'll turn into a dancer. This is the only opportunity to get a dancer in this game. 

 

Once Lara has talked to Pahn

Spoiler

All the enemies will flee at once as the recruitable character, Trewd. This happened to my run. I had to use sleep on Trwed to not let him escape. 

 

Edited January 4, 2020 by Zemuria

[Alastor15243]

3 minutes ago, Zemuria said:

You skipped a very important event for Lara. 

  Reveal hidden contents

If she talks to Pahn, she'll turn into a dancer. This is the only opportunity to get a dancer in this game. 

 

Once Lara has talked to Pahn

  Reveal hidden contents

All the enemies will flee at once as the recruitable character, Trewd. This happened to my run. I had to use sleep on Trwed to not let him escape. 

 

I'm assuming you misread and thought I warp-skipped chapter 12x. I haven't skipped anything.

Edited January 4, 2020 by Alastor15243

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

That's not what I meant. 

I assume you have not finished this chapter, but regardless, you have to deploy Lara for this map.

Since I have not read this name in the post, I just want to inform you.