FE8 DRAFT: LTeCember edition

[Hello72207]

3 hours ago, L3xandr3 said:

Chapter 10 - 10 (+4 'cause I used Tana to recruit Cormag. Got all the loot, though)

This is not a penalty, as Tana did nothing illegal to recruit cormag. It says in the rules that undrafted units may recruit other characters. As long as Tana did nothing illegal there's no penalty.

[Bjarne]

@Hello72207, I realized that if we wanted to promote our fliers earlier, we could have gotten the elysian whip in chapter 8 by keeping a chest key from chapter 5x. Personally, it would have saved me a LOT of turns to have a promoted Vanessa.

[Hello72207]

2 minutes ago, Bjarne said:

I realized that if we wanted to promote our fliers earlier, we could have gotten the elysian whip in chapter 8 by keeping a chest key from chapter 5x. Personally, it would have saved me a LOT of turns to have a promoted Vanessa.

The only problem with this is if the player did not draft Kyle or Forde, it might be even more of a turn cost to get a chest key and the ch 8 chest.

[Bjarne]

True, I could have done it since I drafted Forde, but I'm not resetting this far in.

[L3xandr3]

On 11/26/2020 at 2:19 AM, ImHereForDrafts said:

Rules:
1. Undrafted units may recruit characters, rescue undrafted units and NPCs, trade, visit Shops and Armories and dig up items in the desert.

Penalties:
1. Undrafted units have a 4 turn penalty, per unit per chapter.

9 hours ago, Hello72207 said:

This is not a penalty, as Tana did nothing illegal to recruit cormag. It says in the rules that undrafted units may recruit other characters. As long as Tana did nothing illegal there's no penalty.

Is it not? Tana wasn't drafted by me...

[Bjarne]

@L3xandr3
Undrafted units may recruit characters.

Edited November 30, 2020 by Bjarne

[L3xandr3]

Oh. Ok then. For whatever reason, I assumed that deploying the undrafted unit would entail the penalty. I'm odd like that, sometimes.

[L3xandr3]

Chapter 11 - 8 (5th attempt, caved in and used save-states)

Chapter 12 - 12 (Could've cleared it at 10, but I didn't want to risk Joshua on him getting 2 Crits at 50%)

Total: 166  as of C12

 

Ephraim's still bad. Lv19, -1 Hp, -3.25 Str, +1.75 Skl, -1.75 Spd, -.5 Luk, -1.5 Def, +1.25 Res. He's sped up a bit, but is still subpar for Ephraim.

[Hello72207]

Annnndddddd.... I'm done!

kinda blazed through it quickly, but I didn't have much more to do.

150 is pretty good considering no Seth, Vanessa, or Franz.

Strats for the final levels:

Ch 18 I used warp liberally to save turns.

Ch 19 I used Rennac with a torch for fog vision, then had Myrrh crit the boss on EP with a warp boost from Artur.

Ch 20 I warped Eirika and Myrrh over the top left mountain, and had Tana bring Artur over and get dropped by Eirika turn 1. Turn 2 Myrrh crits the boss and Eirika gets warped to seize.

Final part 1 Myrrh with a dancer boost + capped magic Artur can just barely make it to right in front of Lyon, and with a crit and a hit on EP, Lyon dies. Myrrh needs 18 str or more to kill with a crit and a hit, otherwise a double crit is necessary.

Final part 2 Ephraim chipped the beast, Tana gets a pierce proc and a hit, and Myrrh finishes.

My team:

Spoiler

Eirika was fairly good in the earlygame, but fell off after I had people like Tana and Amelia get up to speed.

Ephraim really was less helpful then normal. He still helped out a bit, but he wasn't used too much.

Artur was very good. He helped a lot with combat in earlygame, and capped magic fairly early, doing so before I even got warp. after that he warped everything everywhere.

Garcia was ok. His early game wasn't the best but he still helped, and he fell off hard afterward.

Horse is good.

Gerik probably would have liked the first hero crest instead of Garcia, but he still was pretty helpful.

'

Dans=good

Rennac really didn't end up doing much at all.

ok, now Myrrh was the star of the endgame. She was the fast bosskiller, and allowed me to save turns on chapters such as the final and ch 20.

 

[ImHereForDrafts]

Gratz! Finishing in 150 turn with that team is pretty legit!

I agree that this ruleset is moderately biased towards early drafters. Then again if you 1st pick Vanessa, you might struggle in chapters 8 & 9 because you are probably not going to have other good early combat units. Franz on the other hand is just an all-around very solid pick but he doesn't save that many turn early unless you RNG-abuse heavily. Ofc if you RNG-abuse heavily and rig level ups, Vanessa too can solo the whole game pretty damn fast. 

[L3xandr3]

Aaaand, I'm demoralized. I knew this wouldn't go well, but Oi! I'm only at Chapter 12 and I already have more turns in then @Hello72207 does, and they're finished.

Well, I'm not stopping now. Even if I end up with ~200 turns, it's not done 'til it's done.

Ephraim's route was a mistake.

[Hello72207]

44 minutes ago, L3xandr3 said:

Aaaand, I'm demoralized. I knew this wouldn't go well, but Oi! I'm only at Chapter 12 and I already have more turns in then @Hello72207 does, and they're finished.

There's nothing to be demoralized about. I have a lot of experience in FE8 draft races, have been in multiple, and my first one I was at a little less then 130 by ch 12's time. So you are on a fairly good pace. Not only that, but I made liberal use of savestates, and you sound like you haven't.

Edited December 1, 2020 by Hello72207

[Bjarne]

Chapter 9A - 20 turns. This one was a nightmare, and I ended up using a save state to make sure Vanessa didn't die, but at least I got to all the villages in the end.

@L3xandr3, don't be demoralized. This is my first draft, too.

Edited December 1, 2020 by Bjarne

[L3xandr3]

2 hours ago, Hello72207 said:

There's nothing to be demoralized about. I have a lot of experience in FE8 draft races, have been in multiple, and my first one I was at a little less then 130 by ch 12's time. So you are on a fairly good pace. Not only that, but I made liberal use of savestates, and you sound like you haven't.

Only in Chapter 10 where save-states used.

It's like how some artists get demoralized by seeing really good art. One one hand, wow am I bad, on the other, I want to get this good.  I'm not quitting, you need not fear that. I'll finish this, one way or another, though I may go through Hell or high water.

[L3xandr3]

Chapter 13 - 10 (Ground up Ewan before this one. Cormag went strait-up God mode on turns 5-7, dodging everything thrown his way and hitting several ~60% hits. Ewan, however was pissing me off, missing 80%s. Karma?)

Chapter 14 - 17 (Status staves + Vigard. Must I explain further?)

 

Total: 193  as of C14

 

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

Edit: did some calculations.

 

Lv 20 Ephraim    -1.8 Hp, -3.8 Str, +1.2 Skl, -2.2 Spd, -1 Luk, -4 Def, +2 Res

Lv7 Ewan    -5.5 Hp, +2.25 Str, 0 Skl, +4.75 Spd, -.5 Luk, -2.25 Def, -1 Res

Lv6 Neimi    -.7 Hp, -2.3 Str, -2 Skl, -.4 Spd, 0 Luk, -2.1 Def, -.9 Res

Lv5 Colm    -4.25 Hp, -2.6 Str, +4.4 Skl, +.65 Spd, +1.45 Luk, +1.25 Def, -.8 Res

Lv7 Lute    -2.05 Hp, +3.25 Str, -1.5 Skl, -3.75 Spd, -1.75 Luk, -1.25 Def, +3 Res

Lv9 Joshua    0 Hp, +3 Str, -6 Skl, -.4 Spd, -1 Luk, -1 Def, -2 Res

Lv6 Cormag    -1.1 Hp, +.7 Str, -1.4 Skl, +2.3 Spd, -1.1 Luk, -.5 Def, -.9 Res

 

Wow. This explains quite a bit about what's going on. Aside from Ewan, Joshua, and Cormag, Oi, is this rough.

Edited December 2, 2020 by L3xandr3

[Bjarne]

Chapter 10 - 6 turns. Good thing I had a flier to carry Eirika over the mountains.

Chapter 11 - 11 turns. Had Vanessa murder everything in the bottom left corner along with a freshly promoted Moulder.

Chapter 12 - 14 turns. Would have saved 3 turns if I was just 1 turn faster, as a set of reinforcements came just as I was about to kill the last enemy.

Chapter 13 - 6 turns. Was done in 4 but waited for Cormag since I needed to promote Vanessa. She is now finally a wyvern knight

Chapter 14 - 11 turns. Forgot to bring L'arachel so I spent a lot of gold on recruiting Rennac so I could get the hammerne staff. Also bought a bunch of killer weapons in the secret shop.

Chapter 15 - 15 turns. I spent too much time babying Rennac and Colm so they could dig up stuff in the sand, and I never ended up using a lot of it.

Chapter 16 - 8 turns. First warp. Just dropped Vanessa into the throne room and let her destroy everything.

Chapter 17 - 2 turns. Vanessa warp into 1 round kill.

Chapter 18 - 8 turns. Only let 2 eggs hatch.

Chapter 19 - 2 turns. Vanessa warp into 1 round kill.

Chapter 20 - 5 turns. Warped Vanessa (with rescued Eirika) in to kill all the Mogalls, then warped Ephraim in to 1 round kill the boss. Also Myrrh died, but I didn't feel like resetting for her.

Chapter 21 - 3 turns. Vanessa 1 round kill on Lyon. Needed Ephraim, Vanessa and Eirika to kill Fomortiis in one round.

Final turn count: 213

Throughout the later chapters, I was getting a bit frustrated with the RNG and ended up using save states a bit more liberally whenever I needed someone to hit/miss.

Here's my final team, ordered from most useful to least useful

 

THE QUEEN. I have now become a devout follower of the church of Vanessa

 

Would have been nice if he had more magic so he could warp more than 5 spaces, but still really good.

 

Dancer. Enough said

 

Better stats than Vanessa, but doesn't have 8 move, flying or pierce.

 

It was pretty nice to get a third combat unit, but apart from being a cavalier, this guy is really mediocore.

 

Excellent magic. Finished the game with his staff rank at almost A. If I had gotten to A rank earlier, warp skips would have been a lot more effective.

 

Dealt a lot of damage and took care of everything flying.

 

He was alright. Nothing more to say.

 

Her being stat screwed in the beginning really sucked, but she was nice during the end.

 

Only got her so you guys wouldn't get a cleric early game. Having her along and not keeping her from dying probably ended up costing more turns than I gained from having her.

 

I might try to play through again just to see if I can get a better turn count.

 

Play of all the games: vanessa. This is basically how every boss battle went from chapter 15 onward.

 

 

Edited December 5, 2020 by Bjarne

[Hello72207]

19 hours ago, Bjarne said:

Would have been nice if he had more magic so he could warp more than 5 spaces, but still really good.

That Moulder got screwed hard.

19 hours ago, Bjarne said:

Final turn count: 213

not bad.

[ImHereForDrafts]

I feel like I will finish this run in December but kind of demotivated to play right now. Probably going to take couple weeks at least. 

Prologue- 3/3 turns

Yep, nice and save 3 turn. 

CH1- 5/8 turns

You can 4 turn this with Franz but too unreliable for me. Forgot I drafted Gilliam, although he wouldn't have done anything here anyway. 

CH2- 5/13 turns

Ross joins the party! Pretty fucked up that you can 5 turn this with solo Eirika. 

CH3- 5/18 turns

 I finally remember that I picked Gilliam. He gets to help by attacking walls with javelin. 

CH4- 5/23 turns

CH5- 5/28 turns

Hate this chapter. Eirika gets the dragon shield to raise her def to 5! Joshua never gets to reunite with her mom 😞

CH5x- 7/35 turns

Good guy Orson carries chapter.

CH6- 4/39 turns

Yup, Franz rushes boss. I feel this will be a thing in this playthrough. Ross hits 10 and promotes to pirate after the chapter. 

CH7- 5/44 turns

Raipier only has couple uses left to Franz gets to kill the boss. 

CH8- 5/49 turns

Franz promotes! His stats are pretty average for him so godlike for anyone else. 

CH9- 12/61 turns

I go Emphraim route because I have never finished it. Getting the ocean seal costs me a turn.  Hard ass chapter. 

CH10- 6/67 turns

Damn this boss is tough. Rigging a crit on him would have turns for sure. 

--

Pretty happy with how this is going. Most units are doing pretty average. Ross is blessed in str and speed but below average in hp and def. 

[L3xandr3]

Currently sick and hurting. I've yet to gather the willpower to start back on this. I'll get to it, once I'm feeling better.

On 12/5/2020 at 2:40 PM, Bjarne said:

Play of all the games: vanessa. This is basically how every boss battle went from chapter 15 onward.

 

I see. That seems about right.

[ImHereForDrafts]

Okay, finally finished this. I have to say, especially chapters 14,1 5 and 16 were a struggle to finish. Frankly, I was surprised how low the final turn count was, because I thought going Ephraim's route was supposed to be slower. I didn't even have Cormag, who may have helped to save couple turns. 

Quick thoughts on the drafted units. Emphraim was godlike but low movement for most of the game, which crippled him. Franz was solid but RNG screwed: ended  the game as lvl  18/18 paladin with 10 def and 15 skill, and I gave him every booster as well. Ross was solid mid game but fell off due to not getting enough exp. He was probably RNG screwed as well but didn't check. Duessel was a good tank for the whole game and didn't need any resources to shine. He had better speed than Ross and almost equal strength. Knoll and especially Syrene had good utility and helped to shave some turns.  Syrene was essential for chapters 17 and Final 1. I barely used Gilliam: he finished the game as lvl 10 knight. Myrph was great. I trained her up to lvl 18 and she destroyed Lyon in the final chapters. 

Just gonna dump rest of the turn counts here, not feeling like typing descriptions at the moment, I'm supposed to be working after all. 

 

--

Chapter	Turn count	Total
11	8	75
Chapter	Turn count	Total
12	4	79
Chapter	Turn count	Total
13	6	85
Chapter	Turn count	Total
14	5	90
Chapter	Turn count	Total
15	7	97
Chapter	Turn count	Total
16	6	103
Chapter	Turn count	Total
17	2	105
Chapter	Turn count	Total
18	6	111
Chapter	Turn count	Total
19	2	113
Chapter	Turn count	Total
20	3	116
Chapter	Turn count	Total
F1	3	119
Chapter	Turn count	Total
F2	1	120