[FE15] Casual Draft, 2-4 Players

[NinjaHero4265]

Hello, I've been itching to play Echoes again for like... ever since it came out, to make sure it's still one of my favorite FEs or is just nostalgia, so I thought I'd try out a draft of it, if that's okay? But since it's my first one and I have not as much experience with the game, I think it should be a bit more relaxed, and well... less optimal, I guess~ But with all that said, here are the rules I've come up with~

Rules:

Free Units: Alm, Celica, One Extra Unit of Your Choice
Banned Units: None~
Player Count: 2-4 Players, preferably able to be talked with on platforms such as Discord and the like to share progress~
Grinding: If you can avoid it, great, but no penalty for doing so unless it actively ruins fun for the rest of us~
Mode: Classic, Hard
Banned Stuff: No DLC, No Mila Turnwheel/Chapter Resets, No Invoke

'Winning' is defined simply by getting to the end, and since I tend to quit on lots of my playthroughs, I'd consider this a win personally lol~ But feel free to go for LTC or whatever, would love to learn some FE strats from you, if you'd like to help out your 'opponent' lol~

If you have any more questions, I'd be happy to answer, but as I'm new to this concept, I don't quite know how good I'll be at answering~ If you have any rules you'd like changed, feel free to inquire, and with all that said, would love to play with anyone who wants to also revisit Valentia again, peace~!

Edited May 9, 2022 by NinjaHero4265
additions and modifications made to rules~

[SnowFire]

First off, I'll probably pass on this so no need to listen to my advice on rules!  The players who do want to play should be listened to first.

That said...  I realize you say it's a "casual" draft, but I don't think you really need the restrictions on early-game unit picking.  Drafts self-balance on that: if there's a run on earlygame units, then players will make sure to draft whatever is remaining.  Besides, on Normal mode, pretty sure Alm/Celica can solo their Chapter 1, so even a drafter who does get totally locked out won't be out of luck.  (Okay, that's not quite true, the early Alm Act III map with the swarm of Dark Mages would be a major problem for an Alm solo...  but you'll have more deployment options than just the Ram Villagers if you want support for that map.)  The other option is to just explicitly allow some out-of-draft usages with an asterisk, similar to how in draft speedruns you can deploy undrafted units at a time penalty.  (And it'd probably be Silque getting subbed in rather than an untrained Villager anyway.)

I will say that if you want to ban a centralizing concept, you might want to ban Invoke.  A drafter who takes Genny w/ Invoke will single-handedly render most other Celica mode picks moot as Invoke is basically a free win all the way up to and including the final boss, but kind of a lame one since you're letting neutral units do all your work for you.  Genny (and other Clerics/Saints) will still be very, very good even without Invoke, so.

Might also be worth explicitly saying if the DLC Cipher characters are legal, for all that they join sufficiently late that they're not a big deal.  (Vaguely important in that they can be recruited by either Alm or Celica, so it is a way to get spare bodies onto a route that didn't draft many characters, at least once their joining map is beatable.)

[NinjaHero4265]

I was not aware of Invoke as a... well, as a mechanic, I did forget about it lol~ Think I benched/only used healer Genny on my first playthrough, so... That's probably why. But early game 'FE8 Summons' with an actual HP stat seems... pretty bonkers, ngl, so might ban but only on Jenny? Idk, if they're that broken, could get rid of the mechanic entirely, especially if it gives one person such a huge advantage... 

As for the early game picking... Yeah, probably right on that too lol, should just come naturally, and considering Lukas, Saber, and Silque are all very strong early game units anyway, yeah, can see how limiting early game unit amounts, even if is an all 4 thing, is kinda unneeded. So think I'll edit that too, alongside... probably setting it to Hard Mode? Idk, I wanted to keep it more accessible, but am now kinda afraid I'm making it too easy for people to feel interested lol~

But yeah, thanks so much for your critiques, will edit my original post, and have a nice night, Snow~!

(Also, I did kinda think no DLC was a given, considering... I don't own it, but yeah, will add that in also~)

Edited May 9, 2022 by NinjaHero4265
extra 'enter' space~