Jump to content

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


Alastor15243
 Share

Recommended Posts

Conquest Day 39: Chapter 26

And we've hit a thousand battle points! That means that once I've beaten the game, I'll take a day to take my surviving army and send them to battle against anyone who wants to challenge me!

I'm also 320 visitor points away from getting the visitation seal, which is excellent. That'd be really fun to play around with! I'm thinking when this is over I'm gonna do a Lunatic Birthright run where I just steamroll the whole fucking thing with all the cool shit I've got.

It seems damned near half the people in the castle have milk for me today. I guess that helps make up for all the milk I lost yesterday at any rate, though I have basically no chance of running out of it.

Alright, let's check out the map and then see what we have to do to prepare.

So the whole Nohrian royal family stands in front of the throne room, and Garon tells them to stay behind so he can consult Ceiling Dragon. First off, it's funny how they just assume there won't be any enemies lying in wait guarding the throne room, waiting to ambush them just when they think they've won. Second, why the fuck hasn't Anankos warned Garon about the throne... when the throne was a fucking gift from Valla!?

But yeah, everyone's just waiting outside before Garon lets them in, but there's one more hurdle before we can finally expose Garon.

Iago and Hans found out we didn't kill Hinoka. Apparently they took so long to escape that during Dakota's duel with Ryoma, when Iago ordered a search of the castle grounds, they saw Hinoka and her retainers still in the process of running off. Apparently they didn't catch her, but still saw her clearly enough that there could be no mistake. That... that makes no sense at all. She had a head start! If they could get that close to her, that must have meant they were faster! How did she get away!?

But by this point, the entire Nohrian royal family has had enough of Iago's shit and stands with us to take them out. And it has one really dumb line from Elise:

You and Hans have done nothing but awful things to innocent people for years! And what's more, you've been openly mean to Dakota!”

Yeah, uh... let's just get to the fight.

So yeah. This is... This is a pretty damned crazy fight. There are two big, crazy, overpowered skills that Conquest Lunatic gives enemies in the last few maps of the game. The first was inevitable end, the bane of last map, which lets debuffs stack. The second is staff savant, and it's introduced here. It gives all staves 1-10 range and infinite uses. If we were playing on Hard, Iago would still have it, but the maids scattered around the level sure as hell wouldn't. Iago has four staves that he apparently constantly alternates between based on the turn, so you can work out when to avoid the dreaded hexing rod in his final inventory slot.

The first room has a hexing rod maid, which mans that we absolutely have to take advantage of our starting position being deep in her range so we can kill her turn one. But that means we have to wade right into a room full of heroes, all of whom have wyrmslayers. That means we can't have any wyvern users in that room, but more damningly, it also means that for turn one, we can't use Dakota or anyone related to him.

Meaning the only people we have available to take out that room are Xander, Leo and Soleil, and Leo can't one-round them.

...Sounds like I should probably go grab Velouria.


 

Day 39 Change of Plans: Paralogue 18

Alright, so, this map has the units all really concentrated in the middle. I don't think this will be a good opportunity to train my player-phasers, and my enemy-phasers are all pretty much maxed out anyway.

Also, I just remembered the dracoshield I got last chapter, so I gave it to Soleil to improve her enemy-phasing against non-ninjas.

I changed up the meal to boost strength and speed instead of defense and speed, and I've got it planned out so I can take out most of the enemies in the center on turn 2 and then player-phase the faceless reinforcements.

Since Keaton's a mandatory deploy, I'll be pairing him up with Camilla for old time's sake. This should be a quick job, so let's get on with it.

...Fun fact: Faceless apparently qualify as male as far as demoiselle is concerned. For a second I was terrified I had done my calculations wrong and Dakota wouldn't be able to one-round these guys on a forest tile, but nope, that was just the demoiselle from the strategist I was just about to kill.

So, first thing I do is have Dakota/Gunter and Xander/Charlotte stand outside the staff/turret range, with Gunter in front. Then I rally them up, silence the map with the dragon vein, and send them both in. Xander kills the faceless in front of the central strategist, while Dakota kills the strategist directly in melee range with the Grim Yato. The result being that Dakota is now in a position to kill not only the faceless in the immediate vicinity, but also all of the malig knights that are threatening the map with their massive zones of control. And with them blasted right out of the sky, all I have-

...Two of them didn't attack.

...Their hit rate was too low. Damn it.

...Also, I forgot to change Velouria's skills, so she has swordbreaker instead of trample. Damn it. Well, swordbreaker will be nice for the immediate purpose I recruited her for, but still, damn, wish I remembered to check. For all of their insane strength, their limited weapon access means they sometimes have trouble one-rounding.

I like beastshifters in this game a lot more than in Awakening, incidentally. In my initial hard mode playthrough my Dakota!Velouria was, pardon the term, an absolute beast, very effective against meleelocked groups, and the fact that she could alter her defensive stats on the fly for optimal enemy-baiting was really handy. I've unfortunately never been able to make her that good again, and I'm not sure why.

Alright, so, I cleared the wave of reinforcements that shows up after you charge the center, and now I'm working on taking out the leftover enemies. Once they're gone, I'm going to do an air strike to the north and BETTER FUCKING DO IT NOW, BECAUSE A TON OF SORCERERS JUST SPAWNED AND THEY'RE PROBABLY GONNA HEAD STRAIGHT FOR VELOURIA.

Yep, they totally did. Okay, so, due to an oversight, I don't have anyone in range of the final dragon vein. Xander comes close, but he's one short. Which means I need to transfer a mount to him this turn. After that, there will only be three enemies in Velouria's general area who will still be able to fight come enemy phase, and I have plenty of fliers ready to go over the mountains to make sure that they're all dead next phase too. I just need to decide who I can afford to send over to Xander to let him hit the dragon vein.

...Whoever I pick will be isolated significantly from the rest of my army if things go wrong. I think I better send Dakota to loan Xander Gunter.

Velouria saves us the trouble of either her or Percy having to eat two seal skills from a faceless by proccing two consecutive 20% crits with her beaststone. Which also lets us finish off the dark knight with Percy too!

Turns out that replicas share status effects too. You freeze one, you freeze them both. Good thing that was never something I was counting on being false.

Xander just hit level 20.

Okay, everyone but the boss duo is dead. I'm going to try and take them both out in one turn, because vantage-vengeance has the potential to be truly nasty if I can't take him out from full to dead with, say, Mozu. Velouria took out the dark knight top layer and got an HP, strength, speed and defense level for her trouble, which is excellent.

Yep, and the boss goes down to the crescent bow, and Mozu is officially level 20 and no longer has any need for aptitude. The returns were drastically diminishing anyway once she capped strength, skill and speed, but I was still holding out to improve her bulk as much as possible. It... didn't do so well there. But no matter, now she can put on something better to complete her skill set. I'll trade it for air superiority, because why not? The only other competition is skill+2. If this were Birthright or Revelation and she'd married a sky knight? I'd totally put on darting blow instead. But nope, air superiority it is.

...I probably could've done something completely psychotic by getting her life and death instead... but that's something to consider for another time.

Alright, I'll check out the supports. I've already done these, but let's see if Camilla's has anything to offer, or if I notice anything new.

...Nah, it's mostly how I remember it.

Well, this was a nice distraction.

But I'm out of paralogues now.

The next three maps I'm going to have to do using only what I've got.

But I think I've gotten myself sufficiently prepared.

This is it, people.

Next week will be the last for Conquest.

Stay safe, everyone.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 9.8k
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

2 hours ago, Jotari said:

Yeah, I despite this chapter with great vitriol for precisely this reason. Because on my first playthrough of the game after well over an hour of resets trying to crawl through both sides of the level, I finally managed to take out Saizo and Kagero only for Ryoma to immediatly proc Astra and kill Corrin in one shot. Just fuck everything about that. Super pissy unfair to make something safe in one turn and then suddenly remove that safety without warning in what is meant to be the path of victory. Now I just muder Ryoma on the first handful of turns because that's way, way, way easier than dealing with the level

Something something ironmannability.

2 hours ago, Jotari said:

I notice know commentary on the hilarious level of gameplay story segeregation at the start of the map with Ryoma pissed and fully ready to kill Corrin, only to shift over to a message saying he's going to be patient about it.

Just an all-around shittier version of the final Black Knight fight in Radiant Dawn. That time, the cutscene flowed sensibly into what happened next.

2 hours ago, Jotari said:

On that note. I request Alastor plays Heires of Fate.

I've thought about playing that one, along with Awakening's "Future Past". But I'm kinda burned out on spending any more on DLC. Especially when, I don't believe it's ever gone on sale?

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Radiant Dawn I'm pretty sure was the longest before now, at 45 days. This comes really close to beating it thanks to all the paralogues and the handful of days I couldn't finish a whole chapter, but I don't think it'll make it that far.

Ah, but what if the time it took to complete the Prologue through Chapter 5 were included?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Something something ironmannability.

I mean they tell you before it happens, it's more that it makes the prep screen stuff weird.

2 minutes ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Ah, but what if the time it took to complete the Prologue through Chapter 5 were included?

It was.

Edited by Alastor15243
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 5/4/2021 at 6:06 AM, Alastor15243 said:

If it's any consolation, his death likely saved someone's life. If that bolt naginata falcon knight had gone after Percy like I originally planned, having her AND the two kinshi knights over the southwestern lake would have caused a ton of unforeseen problems. Xander would have 20% less hit against all his other targets in range, Percy and Camilla would have had to help fight the southwestern lake enemies and nobody would've been able to kill that second kinshi Knight near Dakota, and also Laslow wouldn't have been able to pass Dwyer off to Effie to get a reliable kill and might have missed as a result.

Fair enough. It sucks, but looking at your situation again, it looked very much like (and I ain't gonna lie, I thought) it would end worse than it actually did.

On 5/5/2021 at 11:04 AM, Alastor15243 said:

...but then right when I look away to type that, I hear a crit flash, and... the soldier's down? WHAT?

By what I heard and saw, it sounds like the bow knight just... fucking ignored wary fighter and attacked twice, hitting the first time and critting the second!

THE FUCK JUST HAPPENED WHILE I LOOKED AWAY!? THERE WAS ONLY ONE ENEMY WITH PASS THERE'S ONLY ONE BOW KNIGHT AROUND WHERE HE WAS! THIS SHOULDN'T HAVE BEEN POSSIBLE!

Yeah, I'm not sure about this one... UNLESS the lancer attacked said bow knight on the NPC turn as well, which is about the only reasonable explanation.

On 5/4/2021 at 5:56 AM, Etrurian emperor said:

Poor Siegbert. He's too good a boy to go out like that. 

 

On 5/4/2021 at 4:13 AM, Jotari said:

That was the first map you actually fielded Seigbert in, right? Xander, father of the year, abandons his son with visits as frequent as a deadbeat dad, praises his son for battling a hoard of enemies by himself because that's what royalty does, allows him to join a war during it's most dangerous final phase and then gets him killed in his first battle. What a hero XD

For all the flak that Fates gets with regards to its handling of children, this is NOT the dumbest thing a parent has done with their child in this series... that goes to Ethlyn by far; anyone with half a brain would know that taking an infant child with you on a war march would be as smart as robbing a gun store (something that I have seen, incidentally; no prizes for guessing how that went). Yet it seems that people are A-OK with that (despite the fact that, you know, a child would be an obvious liability if you ever ran into enemies; it's no guarantee that they wouldn't just get killed) while they aren't so forgiving when it comes to what the Fates parents did (which at least keeps them safe for a while)... what's with the blatantly hypocritical double standard???

On 5/4/2021 at 12:59 AM, Imuabicus said:

Yeah, Sol requires big brain someone with 1-2 range, but I knew your stance on that skill anyway. Malefic Aura is in essence +2 Mag.

Okay then, let's think about the sources of 1-2 range in this game;

  • Throwing weapons got nerfed and cannot follow up or activate skills, with the exceptions having other issues
  • Magic weapons also cannot activate skills, again with certain exceptions
  • Tomes are not as good a weapon type as they were in Awakening (also, most units good with magic are rather frail)
  • Shuriken are only usable by 5 classes, three of which are in the same class tree (durability tends to be a concern with these classes too)
  • Raijinto and Siegfried are character locked.

This means that I'm rather limited in terms of 1-2 range options that can activate skills. There's also the fact that in general, Sol is only useful if the enemy is healthy when it procs, seeing as it only drains half the damage dealt, and useless otherwise. Needless to say, that won't always happen (and besides, that's not the mark of a good skill if they're that restricted in terms of when they can be good). And then there's the fact that its activation rate is, at best, about 1/3 - slightly more reliable than a Scald burn. Malefic Aura is not going to do much except for magic-heavy parties - and let's face it, mages are most likely going to be a minority in any given FE party.

On 5/4/2021 at 12:59 AM, Imuabicus said:

I assume you talking about Kumagera and Gazak? Not really - of course using them requires the player to notice that they are geared towards taking stuff out and not stand around and twiddle their thumbs. There´s a goddamn reason characters have Certain Blow.

Which any other combat unit can do, except most melee combat units aren't only effective on player phase, aka once a turn (not to mention that as they have foot movement, they often have to wait for their targets to approach first, which means they most likely take damage from whoever lured them in and can be easily disposed of by pretty much anyone next turn, before they have the chance to initiate). Also, at the end of the day, they're still foot axes - a class that tends to be rather pathetic - and thus I'd just pass over them anyway because Camilla renders them obsolete.

On 5/4/2021 at 12:59 AM, Imuabicus said:

Bla bla bla, what are Fates mechanics, what is damage stacking etc pp.

And there is no stat difference between Hard and Lunatic - Niles performance will be the same on either. If you played the game, you might know that. How to keep Niles relevant - see sentence above. Or you just do, whatever you do to keep Kaze relevant.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Really, all your problems could be solved by trying stuff out,but you have been quite dedicated to trolling for the last 3-5 years.

You do realize you just shit away what credibility you think you had by hurling petty insults, right...? Trust is a two-way street, and insulting others shows you're untrustworthy. Anyway, I don't do anything to keep Kaze relevant, because - breaking news - I have issues keeping him relevant as well; FFS, I had to drop him in my current Birthright playthrough (which is on Lunatic) because he only got one strength level in 10 levels. I'm of the philosophy that while speed is the most important stat in these games, it doesn't help much when you lack nearly everywhere else; this applies to Niles as well, and is one of the many reasons why I much prefer his daughter for a bow user (admittedly, how good she is depends on her mother). Long story short, I'm not going to actively invest in units that have a habit of getting bad level ups. That being said... While there are ways to help the damage output of weaker characters, those can be applied to everyone; thus, I'd say someone who actively needs those is at a disadvantage compared to someone who doesn't.

Edited by Shadow Mir
Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, Jotari said:

On that note. I request Alastor plays Heires of Fate.

If people want it? Sure. But I'm worried the majority of my audience might have Fates fatigue at this point.

 

56 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

Yeah, I'm not sure about this one... UNLESS the lancer attacked said bow knight on the NPC turn as well, which is about the only reasonable explanation.

That... actually very well might have been it. I can't clearly remember if any enemy movement happened after it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

It was.

Ah, my bad, then.

12 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

So yeah. This is... This is a pretty damned crazy fight. There are two big, crazy, overpowered skills that Conquest Lunatic gives enemies in the last few maps of the game. The first was inevitable end, the bane of last map, which lets debuffs stack. The second is staff savant, and it's introduced here. It gives all staves 1-10 range and infinite uses. If we were playing on Hard, Iago would still have it, but the maids scattered around the level sure as hell wouldn't. Iago has four staves that he apparently constantly alternates between based on the turn, so you can work out when to avoid the dreaded hexing rod in his final inventory slot.

Wait, they all have Staff Savant? That sounds bonkers, and not like a good time. I thought it was unfair, just on Iago...

12 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

But I'm out of paralogues now.

Time for Dakota to relax the "One Child" Policy, perhaps? If everyone could start having more kids, that's your gateway to EXP!

12 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

I like beastshifters in this game a lot more than in Awakening, incidentally. In my initial hard mode playthrough my Dakota!Velouria was, pardon the term, an absolute beast, very effective against meleelocked groups, and the fact that she could alter her defensive stats on the fly for optimal enemy-baiting was really handy. I've unfortunately never been able to make her that good again, and I'm not sure why.

Beastrunes were a great inclusion. If we get non-laguz beastformers back in the future, I'd love to see even wider variety in transforming stones. Say, one that boosts crit rate, and another that does magical damage. 

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

If people want it? Sure. But I'm worried the majority of my audience might have Fates fatigue at this point.

...Damn, you're right. I thought I wanted it, but now I'm realizing I'd rather see Echoes get an earlier start. Of course, it's up to you, either way!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Wait, they all have Staff Savant? That sounds bonkers, and not like a good time. I thought it was unfair, just on Iago...

Just wait until endgame...

On 5/13/2021 at 11:49 AM, Alastor15243 said:

Okay, the Dakota-Ryoma duel's starting just as I've fully prepared to take on the eastern hall of death, and here's another example of one of the few things this game doesn't telegraph. It doesn't tell you how the damage reduction on the dueling floor works. There is in fact no way to know it does reduce damage, or that Ryoma won't attack right away, until well after you've finished preparation, which can be annoying.

 

20 hours ago, Jotari said:

Yeah, I despite this chapter with great vitriol for precisely this reason. Because on my first playthrough of the game after well over an hour of resets trying to crawl through both sides of the level, I finally managed to take out Saizo and Kagero only for Ryoma to immediatly proc Astra and kill Corrin in one shot. Just fuck everything about that. Super pissy unfair to make something safe in one turn and then suddenly remove that safety without warning in what is meant to be the path of victory. Now I just muder Ryoma on the first handful of turns because that's way, way, way easier than dealing with the level.

I don't like it either -  it's like either "accept the fact that you're going to have to plug away at Ryoma for a while because you deal barely any damage" or "go through all the trouble to activate the Dragon Vein only for it to now be a game of Russian Roulette where you can lose if luck is not on your side". Ugh.

Incidentally, this is about the only instance where I found killer weapons to be useful, as the lower power compared to other weapons doesn't really matter that much here.

18 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Okay, everyone but the boss duo is dead. I'm going to try and take them both out in one turn, because vantage-vengeance has the potential to be truly nasty if I can't take him out from full to dead with, say, Mozu. Velouria took out the dark knight top layer and got an HP, strength, speed and defense level for her trouble, which is excellent.

The boss only has Nosferatu, so no Vengeance for them. 

Edited by Shadow Mir
Link to comment
Share on other sites

19 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

I like beastshifters in this game a lot more than in Awakening, incidentally. In my initial hard mode playthrough my Dakota!Velouria was, pardon the term, an absolute beast, very effective against meleelocked groups, and the fact that she could alter her defensive stats on the fly for optimal enemy-baiting was really handy. I've unfortunately never been able to make her that good again, and I'm not sure why.

I never really liked them in either game much, other than Dragonstone users in Fates I suppose. That ability to mix standard weapons and shifting is actually kinda interesting, and seems in line with other multiweapon type classes.

 

9 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:
  • Tomes are not as good a weapon type as they were in Awakening (also, most units good with magic are rather frail)

Tomes are great weapons in Fates, you just don't like how the units that have access to them play.

 

10 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

Which any other combat unit can do, except most melee combat units aren't only effective on player phase, aka once a turn

...This is Fates, where attack stance lets your units contribute more than once each player phase.

 

10 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

(not to mention that as they have foot movement, they often have to wait for their targets to approach first, which means they most likely take damage from whoever lured them in and can be easily disposed of by pretty much anyone next turn, before they have the chance to initiate)

Did you forget we were talking about Fates? Units can pair-swtich-transfer to use the movement range of their allies with relative ease.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 5/13/2021 at 1:49 PM, Alastor15243 said:

It's still gonna be dicey. Man, I would be very impressed to see the purely player-phase gambits that could pierce through this array of insane enemies. The game's specifically designed so that you don't have access to 3-range weapons until right after this map, meaning that if you enemy-phase this, you have to be able to do it after taking a minimum of 80% of your HP in after-battle damage.

And that's just the east side. You know what I hate about the east side? I've beaten it multiple times now, I've always gotten the chest, and I never fucking remember what I did to do it.

Eltosian Kadath already addressed this, and his approach to Chapter 25 is probably more efficient than mine (also with ten units, no royals, no backpacks.) For me the key is to Entrap the Spy Ninjas. You then you bait the Master of Arms in the corridor (everyone will come towards the doors), wipe the area and Freeze the survivor or sustain a phase.
Two Entraps in the eastern side should suffice, for you also want to Entrap one or both Spy Automatons and the Life or Death Sword Master guarding Saizo in the west.
Instead of Entrap, this can also be done with Freeze, but you need more charges and a couple more turns.

A Sniper is usually the MVP here. +Magic Nohr Noble Cornflakes with Mjölnir and Heart Seeker is my best bet against Ryoma.

 

On 5/14/2021 at 12:53 PM, Alastor15243 said:

Day 39 Change of Plans: Paralogue 18

Man, I have yet to come up with an efficient approach for Velouria's map. No matter what I do, I always end up using around twenty turns. 😒
I know, ten units is a small party, but this map takes ages for me. Even when I play it before Chapter 15 (by grinding supports with Keaton in 'Before Awakening.')

Edited by starburst
Link to comment
Share on other sites

29 minutes ago, starburst said:

Eltosian Kadath already addressed this, and his approach to Chapter 25 is probably more efficient than mine (also with ten units, no royals, no backpacks.) For me the key is to Entrap the Spy Ninjas. You then you bait the Master of Arms in the corridor (everyone will come towards the doors), wipe the area and Freeze the survivor or sustain a phase.
Two Entraps in the eastern side should suffice, for you also want to Entrap one or both Spy Automatons and the Life or Death Sword Master guarding Saizo in the west.
Instead of Entrap, this can also be done with Freeze, but you need more charges and a couple more turns.

A Sniper is usually the MVP here. +Magic Nohr Noble Cornflakes with Mjölnir and Heart Seeker is my best bet against Ryoma

Funny enough that was a slip-up on my part. I meant the west side. I never remember what I did to take on the west side. Well, I mean I remember what I did this time, but every successful attempt before that has failed to even slightly stick in my mind.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Conquest Day 40: Chapter 26

I started a new game on Lunatic for fun using all of the free shit I've unlocked, and I'm looking forward to having fun memeing the shit out of Conquest. So don't be surprised if you visit me later and the castle looks... a lot less developed.

...Shit, if I had upgraded Effie's statue sooner, I could've gotten Mozu one more point of strength before she hit level 20. Alas. Lesson learned.

I managed to get the str/spd/def meal I wanted on the first try, so let's see what I've got to work with now that I have Velouria...

...Yeah I can manage this. I have three units sturdy enough to survive the enemy-phase even if one of them gets enfeebled, especially after taking dual guards into account and the enemies I'll be killing on player-phase. And that's assuming nobody procs sol, which they probably will.

...Except no because HOLY FUCKING SHIT THEY ACTUALLY PUT AN ENTRAP STAFF MAID IN THE ROOM TO THE EAST AND SHE'S COVERING MORE THAN HALF THE FIRST ROOM.

Honestly, I think I hate the entrap staff. I genuinely think it shouldn't exist. It's too reliable for you to be able to count on a miss when the enemy uses it, but not even remotely accurate enough for you to be able to count on a hit when you use it. Not to mention it costs more than four thousand fucking gold for two 60% chance uses like what the actual fuck.

If this were a normal playthrough I could just save-scum for a miss, which this early in the map means it'd basically just be a nuisance. But since this is an ironman, I have to assume that will hit, sending some poor bastard right into the range of two enemy sorcerers, possibly after the heroes have already moved and attacked.

Yeah, uh... I'm starting to understand what scared me off of completing my original lunatic file. This is... this is kinda ridiculous. I'm sure I'd have a much higher opinion of it if I were more familiar with strategies to deal with it, but going at this pseudo-blind... uh... there doesn't seem to be any viable player-phasing strategy for this. At all. Certainly not without Azura. Not without using the silence rod and relying on a hit. And I need that thing for endgame. I know that for sure. I just have to take my strongest guys and hope they're tough enough to handle all eight of these enemies. And if not... well...

...We'll see about that if and when it happens.

Honestly, again, this is just a personal pet peeve, but I absolutely hate it when the game forces you to eat debuffs without any realistic way to avoid them. I can't even really explain why, I just don't like going into a challenge knowing for a fact that I'm going to have to play with a nerfed army.

Man this would be so much easier if Azura were alive. Not only would I have a singer, but I'd also have managed to get shurikenbreaker on Xander, and he'd be able to one-shot this maid and then tank all of these enemies no problem. Instead I have to rely on Soleil to take out the maid, and her defensive abilities, while still respectable... are decidedly more shaky. Plus, I can see a place down south where shurikenbreaker Xander would be super handy for killing a maid and then taking a bunch of berserkers.

The good news is that we have Velouria now, and with the beastrune equipped she's damned near as tanky as Xander is.

Yeah, huge numbers of enemies with slayer weapons seems to be a recurring theme here. In addition to the heroes with wyrmslayers up top, the generals below all have beastkillers, and the berserkers all have hammers.

HOLY SHIT MY FINGERS JUST DO NOT WANT TO PRESS THE START BUTTON. I'M SO SCARED OF LOSING EVERYTHING THIS CLOSE TO THE END, MY BRAIN IS JUST FILLING WITH ALL THE WAYS THIS COULD GO WRONG.

...But I have to do it.

Alright.

Let's go.

First step: Revising my plan from earlier to take out the maid on the first turn, I instead set all three of my guard stance units who will be storming the first room just outside of enemy range, with their partners in front so that one of them will eat the hexing rod. This will simultaneously get Soleil/Selena a little bit closer and also let the one who gets the ninja movement boost be in front, and those two things combined mean that Soleil can reach a spot to take out the maid that isn't in range of the entrap maid. This will also mean that Iago will use his freeze staff instead of his enfeeble staff when my team actually enters the room, which is better for ensuring Soleil's survival. With them all rallied up, Velouria and Xander will then block the door to protect my rally users and my door-breaker, with Xander taking out one of the heroes to make way for Soleil, both also from out of range of the entrap maid. Once everyone's weathered the following enemy-phase, I'll get everyone out of the way in time to avoid the dreaded hexing rod, and then I'll send my toughest guys to take out that entrap maid and any reinforcements that might come from those stairs. After that... well, the party's just getting started.

Oh thank goodness. Yes, it's based on turn number, not the staff Iago last used. You can, in fact, skip the hexing rod entirely by just not being near him on any turn that's a multiple of 4.

...I somehow miscalculated how much damage Soleil does, and she failed to kill any of these guys by one lousy point.

Plus side is that she's alive, and at full health, because she activated sol a ton.

Looks like I'll have to do some player-phase stuff. And after a terrifying moment where I forgot these guys had counter and wounded Xander just as he was about to risk being entrapped into a room with two sorcerers. Thankfully I managed to player-phase the rest of the heroes without having to use either Laslow for rallying so I could have both of them heal Xander back to acceptable levels.

Inexplicably, one of the sorcerers didn't attack Dakota when she was entrapped in and them promptly status-staved by both the fucking maids in the next room. Thankfully I managed to deal with it, but now I have to wade through three separate status staff users in order to set up the proper player-phase strategy to take out this next room.

Fun fact: breaking down doors doesn't count as an attack as far as the crescent bow is concerned. Mozu broke down the door and her halved attack was not restored.


 

Holy shit was that terrifying. In order to get enough people in range of the enemies in the eastern room, I had to take a leap of faith that the enemies wouldn't break their “don't aggro until they're way too close” policy if I dangled an easy kill in front of them. They didn't, and thus I was able to player-phase the room swiftly. Then the sorcerer reinforcements showed up, and Soleil's replica. obliterated them from across the wall. The only price we had to pay was an assortment of stat debuffs and getting Laslow hexed. I just got the venge naginata, and now it's time to heal up the stat debuffs and wait for our time to strike...

...the final room.

Yeah, we could've gone to the west, but uh... yeah, fuck stoneborn. Especially when we have no global-freeze dragon veins (or any dragon veins at all) and there's an entrap maid right at the bottom of the hall. Player-phasing a room like this was already a pain in the ass when I could safely park the entire army right outside the door. I'm just gonna avoid that entire side except for the entrap maid that I'm gonna have to kill because her range is ridiculous thanks to staff savant.

Also, damage-boosting skills don't apply to door-breaking, which is annoying because several units I have could easily break doors in a single hit if they did, but instead I have to do two attacks most of the time.

...Damn it, no matter how I tackle this room, I have to deal with the fact that any two of my units could be frozen at any time. And then... I also heard his crazy rumor a while back that the reinforcements for this room include a hexing rod user who can move.

...Ugh. Yeah, I don't think it's a good idea to tackle this today. I'm gonna have to make this a two-parter. I'll face the final room tomorrow.

Stay safe, everyone.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

52 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

...Except no because HOLY FUCKING SHIT THEY ACTUALLY PUT AN ENTRAP STAFF MAID IN THE ROOM TO THE EAST AND SHE'S COVERING MORE THAN HALF THE FIRST ROOM.

Honestly, I think I hate the entrap staff. I genuinely think it shouldn't exist. It's too reliable for you to be able to count on a miss when the enemy uses it, but not even remotely accurate enough for you to be able to count on a hit when you use it. Not to mention it costs more than four thousand fucking gold for two 60% chance uses like what the actual fuck.

If this were a normal playthrough I could just save-scum for a miss, which this early in the map means it'd basically just be a nuisance. But since this is an ironman, I have to assume that will hit, sending some poor bastard right into the range of two enemy sorcerers, possibly after the heroes have already moved and attacked.

Yeah, uh... I'm starting to understand what scared me off of completing my original lunatic file. This is... this is kinda ridiculous. I'm sure I'd have a much higher opinion of it if I were more familiar with strategies to deal with it, but going at this pseudo-blind... uh... there doesn't seem to be any viable player-phasing strategy for this. At all. Certainly not without Azura. Not without using the silence rod and relying on a hit. And I need that thing for endgame. I know that for sure. I just have to take my strongest guys and hope they're tough enough to handle all eight of these enemies. And if not... well...

52 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

HOLY SHIT MY FINGERS JUST DO NOT WANT TO PRESS THE START BUTTON. I'M SO SCARED OF LOSING EVERYTHING THIS CLOSE TO THE END, MY BRAIN IS JUST FILLING WITH ALL THE WAYS THIS COULD GO WRONG.

Conquest is totally the best game to Ironman, guys!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Yeah, and what does that say about the rest of the series?

SHADOW DRAGON is the best game to Ironman. Between the simple gameplay, gaiden characters and replacement units you're basically guaranteed to finish the game as long as you keep Marth alive. If you have 30 hours 20 minutes to spare, I recommend you watch Excelblem glorious run.

As others already spoke in the thread, Conquest has too much shit going on at the same time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, Maof06 said:

SHADOW DRAGON is the best game to Ironman. Between the simple gameplay, gaiden characters and replacement units you're basically guaranteed to finish the game as long as you keep Marth alive. If you have 30 hours 20 minutes to spare, I recommend you watch Excelblem glorious run.

As others already spoke in the thread, Conquest has too much shit going on at the same time.

I repeat myself: that's difficulty. Not ironmannability. Shadow Dragon is indeed great for ironmans, but there's almost nothing wrong with this game that causes failures to not be your fault, just a lot of chances for you to screw up.

Edited by Alastor15243
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

And then... I also heard his crazy rumor a while back that the reinforcements for this room include a hexing rod user who can move.

???

You didn't opt to Entrap Hans into the first room? That'd let you spawn the reinforcements in his room early, they'll just sit there until you knock down the doors.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

???

You didn't opt to Entrap Hans into the first room? That'd let you spawn the reinforcements in his room early, they'll just sit there until you knock down the doors.

I considered that strategy, but that's more than 4k I'd be spending on two uses of a 60 hit staff. And I'm strapped to begin with.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 5/15/2021 at 6:01 AM, Eltosian Kadath said:

Tomes are great weapons in Fates, you just don't like how the units that have access to them play.

And should I? Among the natural mages in the game, most of them either have poor stats in most areas (Orochi, Nyx, Rhajat), come underleveled (Birthright Hayato), or focus on the wrong stats (Odin). This leaves Ophelia and Leo. Outside of those two (and probably Revelation Hayato), it's safe to say I'm better off looking elsewhere (ergo, reclassing) if I want a good mage; hell, I'd rather try my hand with a gimmicky child setup than press my luck with Ms. "I'm so slow I need help to double the one unit type that my class should be good against" or Ms. "I have good speed and magic, but my other stats are lousy, and I'm essentially the magic version of Gonzales". I don't know about you, but imho, it's safe to say that compared to Awakening, where the natural mages were decent AT WORST, most Fates mages are only mediocre at best.

Also, the game doesn't mention this, but Inevitable End does more than the description lets on... once a unit with it tags you, any and all future debuffs from enemies will stack, even from  enemies that do not have it. Though that point is moot considering that in the two chapters that it shows up in, any unit with debuffs has it.

4 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

And then... I also heard his crazy rumor a while back that the reinforcements for this room include a hexing rod user who can move.

Fortunately for you, that's false.

4 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Honestly, I think I hate the entrap staff. I genuinely think it shouldn't exist. It's too reliable for you to be able to count on a miss when the enemy uses it, but not even remotely accurate enough for you to be able to count on a hit when you use it. Not to mention it costs more than four thousand fucking gold for two 60% chance uses like what the actual fuck.

DItto. Hell, I think this way about status staves in general, except my complaint is that they're much too rare for the player to obtain, and even when you get them, they're generally overly niche, whereas the moment you see one on the enemy side, they pretty much enforce turtling (Damn the Hexing Rod to the deepest circles of Hell). Also, the Entrap staff used in chapter 27 is a different variant with overkill accuracy, but only one use.

On 5/15/2021 at 6:01 AM, Eltosian Kadath said:

Did you forget we were talking about Fates? Units can pair-swtich-transfer to use the movement range of their allies with relative ease.

No, but even then, I'd say that Camilla or any other physical unit with a fighter or oni in the back is better than a fighter or oni in the front with the other unit in back.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Out of curiosity I checked that... do they really change what kind of spy weapon you get depending on Kaze's weapon rank? That's... curious.

Maybe the variable chest contents is okay. I'm not sure whether I like it or not done in this way. Kaze is the only "normal" throwing weapon user you get other than Jakob/Felicia/Flora, all of whom might be treated more as staffbots, so I understand why they based it specifically on him

While I like the idea of the Spy weapons, this is one of the crappiest chests in Conquest. There is nothing to use the Spy Whatever on that'd be cheating at this point! Even one chapter earlier would've let you make some cheese fundue with it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Maybe the variable chest contents is okay. I'm not sure whether I like it or not done in this way. Kaze is the only "normal" throwing weapon user you get other than Jakob/Felicia/Flora, all of whom might be treated more as staffbots, so I understand why they based it specifically on him

While I like the idea of the Spy weapons, this is one of the crappiest chests in Conquest. There is nothing to use the Spy Whatever on that'd be cheating at this point! Even one chapter earlier would've let you make some cheese fundue with it.

Yeah it genuinely feels like mockery. But I dunno, maybe Mozu can get some use out of it. Or maybe Effie.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

DItto. Hell, I think this way about status staves in general, except my complaint is that they're much too rare for the player to obtain, and even when you get them, they're generally overly niche, whereas the moment you see one on the enemy side, they pretty much enforce turtling (Damn the Hexing Rod to the deepest circles of Hell). Also, the Entrap staff used in chapter 27 is a different variant with overkill accuracy, but only one use.

Yeah, status staves are a tricky thing. Much like siege tomes and ballistae, the enemy tends to get way more use out of them than the player. One place where I have found them useful is Genealogy - a caster whose Magic exceeds the target's Res has a guaranteed hit. And while their uses are few, money is attainable enough that you can use them in key cases.

I think Fates got it right in cutting the duration of staves like Freeze to one turn, but I would prefer moving to a binary Hit/Miss system. I alsothought Three Houses had a great reform, in replacing few-use staves with fewer-use spells that replenish every map. ...Except that Silence was the only status spell available, and key enemies received a skill to specifically neuter it.

53 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Maybe the variable chest contents is okay. I'm not sure whether I like it or not done in this way. Kaze is the only "normal" throwing weapon user you get other than Jakob/Felicia/Flora, all of whom might be treated more as staffbots, so I understand why they based it specifically on him

This is weird to do with Chests, but I'm kind of a fan of Villages giving something different based on who visits. Say, your Mercenary gets a Killing Edge, while your Archer gets a Killer Bow.

6 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

..Except no because HOLY FUCKING SHIT THEY ACTUALLY PUT AN ENTRAP STAFF MAID IN THE ROOM TO THE EAST AND SHE'S COVERING MORE THAN HALF THE FIRST ROOM.

Honestly, I think I hate the entrap staff. I genuinely think it shouldn't exist. It's too reliable for you to be able to count on a miss when the enemy uses it, but not even remotely accurate enough for you to be able to count on a hit when you use it. Not to mention it costs more than four thousand fucking gold for two 60% chance uses like what the actual fuck.

Entrap seems like one of those cool ideas that Fates put out there, that's horribly imbalanced in function. I'm not sure how to "fix" it, exactly. Reduce the range? Prevent casting it through walls? Cast Miracle+ on the target, so they can't be killed same-phase? I really don't know.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

Honestly, I think I hate the entrap staff. I genuinely think it shouldn't exist. It's too reliable for you to be able to count on a miss when the enemy uses it, but not even remotely accurate enough for you to be able to count on a hit when you use it. Not to mention it costs more than four thousand fucking gold for two 60% chance uses like what the actual fuck.

I have always managed to boost it into the 90% when I have to use it, but those kinda tactics make it something you use when you are in a relatively safe and stationary position rather  than something you use in the moment.

 

9 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

If this were a normal playthrough I could just save-scum for a miss, which this early in the map means it'd basically just be a nuisance. But since this is an ironman, I have to assume that will hit, sending some poor bastard right into the range of two enemy sorcerers, possibly after the heroes have already moved and attacked.

As long as you deal with the heroes first (fairly certain they move when baited) you can use a tomebreaker, or res tank to deal with the Sorcerers (res tank might be better as that has the highest impact on staff evasion).

 

9 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

Honestly, again, this is just a personal pet peeve, but I absolutely hate it when the game forces you to eat debuffs without any realistic way to avoid them. I can't even really explain why, I just don't like going into a challenge knowing for a fact that I'm going to have to play with a nerfed army.

...I get the feeling Endgame is not going to be fun for you. I am not as bothered by debuffs, with the idea that you cycle debuffed troops to the back of the formation as you keep moving on, and they becoming more valuable for activating an ally's attack stance hit, mobility utility (shelter, lunge, transfer separate, or pair switch transfer maneuvers), or buffing rather than direct help.

 

9 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

...I somehow miscalculated how much damage Soleil does, and she failed to kill any of these guys by one lousy point.

That is really frustrating, even one little thing like Elise being adjacent would have swung things...

 

9 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

Looks like I'll have to do some player-phase stuff. And after a terrifying moment where I forgot these guys had counter and wounded Xander just as he was about to risk being entrapped into a room with two sorcerers. Thankfully I managed to player-phase the rest of the heroes without having to use either Laslow for rallying so I could have both of them heal Xander back to acceptable levels.

You were thinking about letting Xander being entrapped with magic enemies? That sounds so suicidal for him...

 

10 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

Fun fact: breaking down doors doesn't count as an attack as far as the crescent bow is concerned. Mozu broke down the door and her halved attack was not restored.

10 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

Also, damage-boosting skills don't apply to door-breaking, which is annoying because several units I have could easily break doors in a single hit if they did, but instead I have to do two attacks most of the time.

This is some fascinating info about Door breaking that I never really noticed.

 

10 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

Yeah, we could've gone to the west, but uh... yeah, fuck stoneborn. Especially when we have no global-freeze dragon veins (or any dragon veins at all) and there's an entrap maid right at the bottom of the hall. Player-phasing a room like this was already a pain in the ass when I could safely park the entire army right outside the door. I'm just gonna avoid that entire side except for the entrap maid that I'm gonna have to kill because her range is ridiculous thanks to staff savant.

That stoneborn/faceless side is tough on Lunatic...when I realized I would have to tackle it (for my strategy to make the Berserker and General room safe) on my no guard stance on the defense, 10 unit, no prepromoted royals run I went looking on youtube for what to expect, and I could not find footage of people tackling that room first on Lunatic (as that effects reinforcements). If you are curious how I handled it, here is an excerpt

Spoiler

The next silence staff turn is the next time to act as Effie Javalin's the door to the eternal stairway part 2: curse of the eternal staff, and Peri trades equips her a blessed lance to enemy phase the first faceless, and everyone piles in behind those two to get past Iago's staff range next turn & Ophelia gets danced to avoid Iago's silence and hide just north of Effie. Next turn the other faceless dies, Ophelia lightning kills the stoneborn (thankfully those inside the next room do not move til the door opens) and get everyone outside Iago's staff range and the non moving stoneborn range. The next phase was such a delicate maneuver that I had to map it out on paper, The big things are Corrin uses 2 turns to Dragoon hex debuff the 2 nearest stoneborn from their range before we start the maneuver (to prevent the scenario that they set up their attack order right with the 2 poisoners striking first and have all the stone born hit Corrin they could kill him). On a Iago freeze turn, first Beruka rally's everyone that will stay in stone born range, Corrin blocks the stoneborn reinforcement and ensure that 3 of the stoneborn will head north and be 2 turns behind the charge of faceless, Effie Javalin's open the door, Silas shelters her, Azura dances Silas, Peri shelters Azura, Niles transfers then swaps to let Azura dance Peri, Felicia transfer Niles away from Azura switches and seperates such that Niles could possibly receive 2 debuffed stoneborn hits with demoiselle plus Inspiration plus defense rally boost, and Felicia could face one with lilypoise, inspiration, defense rally boost. Peri goes back a few spaces and shelter Azura again (Peri's final position has potentially 2 debuffed stoneborn hits with defense rally plus inspiration boost), then Opheila trasnfers and seperates Azura to safety leaving her in range of 1 debuffed stoneborn hit with defense rally and horse spirit. With only Niles in stoneborn kill range (and only if the poisoner acts first, and both him despite his effective 77 avoid with supports, but make a note to give him a defense or health tonic if I reset), they split their fire anyway, and next turn we flee through Iago's silence staff and the following turn back to the starting room to prepare my defense. The first step is to draw the only stoneborn that is keeping pace to enter the nearest space he can killed from range inside the room, and them killing him with Ophelia. With that dealt with I use Effies to enemy phase 2 of them with the blessed lance with solid attack stance and some defensive buffs, and then finish the rest off on player phase. I bait another Stoneborn into a ranged Ophelia death (with sheltering strats afterward to keep people alive), the rest die to my team dog piling them. To deal with the entrap staff in the corner, I get enough cavalry to the other side of her range that I can slay the door the staff and the faceless on one player phase, while starting outside staff range. The next step is to breakdown the door to the berserker and general room.

 

4 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Out of curiosity I checked that... do they really change what kind of spy weapon you get depending on Kaze's weapon rank? That's... curious.

This is a detail that almost every source of information on Fates (barring one early Japanese one I stumbled on while researching this) miss is that the chest is only variable on Normal mode. On Hard or Lunatic it is always a Spy Yumi.

 

3 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

One place where I have found them useful is Genealogy - a caster whose Magic exceeds the target's Res has a guaranteed hit. And while their uses are few, money is attainable enough that you can use them in key cases.

They are excellent in Thracia 776 as well for similar reasons, at the point in the game where the player starts regularly using them they have a healer with high enough skill that they don't miss so enemy's magic is higher than user's magic is the only way they would fail, infinite duration makes them more potent, and you can grab more uses from the enemies...

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

You were thinking about letting Xander being entrapped with magic enemies? That sounds so suicidal for him...

But he could do it safely, and he was there, and I was on a schedule.

5 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

This is a detail that almost every source of information on Fates (barring one early Japanese one I stumbled on while researching this) miss is that the chest is only variable on Normal mode. On Hard or Lunatic it is always a Spy Yumi.

That's honestly even weirder than the "weapon rank conditional" thing.

5 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

...I get the feeling Endgame is not going to be fun for you. I am not as bothered by debuffs, with the idea that you cycle debuffed troops to the back of the formation as you keep moving on, and they becoming more valuable for activating an ally's attack stance hit, mobility utility (shelter, lunge, transfer separate, or pair switch transfer maneuvers), or buffing rather than direct help.

Yeah I've heard about endgame. We'll see how that goes. Honestly a big reason why I'm making my "fuck around with all the free toys" file is so I can mess around with all the things that have been stressing me out on my main file in a risk-free environment. It's become increasingly apparent to me that as much as I love this game, and as much as I love ironmanning, ironmanning Lunatic specifically might just be the tiniest bit outside of my skill range at the moment, and that's causing me undue stress. A lot of my worst reactions to the game have been "I wish I had time to experiment" on things I wouldn't have to experiment with probably if I were just playing Hard.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...