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Marth's Amazon Army - Let's Play FE 11


CelestialContrail
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23 hours ago, CelestialContrail said:

 

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Building a great wall of bodies from the menfolk I see

 

23 hours ago, CelestialContrail said:

 

Wrys steps over to Lena so he can pass off the Heal staff, officially ending his ability to contribute as a healer to this run.

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Wrys has done his job respectably, and at least this time he has the dignity of being replaced by an actual staff unit instead of just a vulnerary

 

On 12/10/2022 at 1:20 PM, CelestialContrail said:

The first thing I do after the enemies move is send Caeda up to talk to Navarre.

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I guess recruiting him does get you that nice killer sword, although that does add another unit that needs to die to the roster...

 

On 12/10/2022 at 1:20 PM, CelestialContrail said:

Afterwards, I have her kill the Thief blocking Navarre's path so I can get him out of there. ...Except she misses one of the strikes and leaves him with 2 HP.

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Oof, that is a bit unlucky, but at least you still have plenty of actions left to compensate for that miss.

 

On 12/10/2022 at 1:20 PM, CelestialContrail said:

 

Norne takes out the Fighter Caeda just weakened, and Draug moves up to wall off Caeda from further damage.

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I also move Lena up so she can heal Caeda next turn.

Draug does a good job as a shield for Caede (at least while he is an armored knight).

 

On 12/10/2022 at 1:20 PM, CelestialContrail said:

 

On the west side, I move Navarre, Gordin, and Ogma over to potentially take the place of the guys currently blocking off the enemies if they take too much damage before my actual combat troops can finish up in the north and head over there.

They are just another brick in that wall of bodies.

 

On 12/10/2022 at 1:20 PM, CelestialContrail said:

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I guess they all have an AI that prioritizes damage dealt, and ignores the damage they take back, the suicidal fools.

 

On 12/10/2022 at 1:20 PM, CelestialContrail said:

 

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At least she got some skill, but the poor girl needs a better levelup than that.

 

On 12/10/2022 at 1:20 PM, CelestialContrail said:

 

I move Caeda south to a spot where Lena'll be able to heal her so she can start working on the Fighters on the west side next turn.

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That is a nice little maneuver to get the healing off just before she reaches the front lines, even if you do end up waiting for help before Caede really enters the fray.

 

On 12/10/2022 at 1:20 PM, CelestialContrail said:

 

Since they're the most badly hurt, Cain and Darros move back so Navarre and Ogma can take their places.

Still keeping so many of them alive...I guess old habits die hard.

 

On 12/10/2022 at 1:20 PM, CelestialContrail said:

Caeda sets the last Fighter up for Norne to kill once again.

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The two really make a good pair, claiming kills together.

 

On 12/10/2022 at 1:20 PM, CelestialContrail said:

...But that makes one of the two Hunters left on the map move towards us. So I rearrange my forces so that Draug is the only target, and Caeda and Norne can move in to attack as needed.

It is a funny little back and forth, advancing only to retreat after they start moving.

 

On 12/10/2022 at 1:20 PM, CelestialContrail said:

 

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Even more strength...She is a beast, even before she pulls out the power of forged effective damage.

 

On 12/10/2022 at 1:20 PM, CelestialContrail said:

 

Both sides hit in the first exchange of arrows, and I move everyone else out of range to make sure the Hunter will keep attacking her on Enemy Phase.

A noble duel for the archers.I guess this shows Norne is clearly better than the enemy archers at least.

 

On 12/10/2022 at 1:20 PM, CelestialContrail said:

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Caeda gets lucky, not only dodging his attack but criting with her follow up, taking him out completely unscathed. Since this guy dropped a Vulnerary, I have her send her mostly used up one to the Convoy.

It is a little spooky to see her potentially taking over half her health from a player phase counter and not reliably kill, but luck has favored her boldness today, and Marth is close enough to save her anyway.

 

On 12/10/2022 at 1:20 PM, CelestialContrail said:

 

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Finally a good levelup from her...but she could kinda use another like that.

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2 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

Building a great wall of bodies from the menfolk I see

Wrys has done his job respectably, and at least this time he has the dignity of being replaced by an actual staff unit instead of just a vulnerary

I guess recruiting him does get you that nice killer sword, although that does add another unit that needs to die to the roster...

Oof, that is a bit unlucky, but at least you still have plenty of actions left to compensate for that miss.

Draug does a good job as a shield for Caede (at least while he is an armored knight).

They are just another brick in that wall of bodies.

I guess they all have an AI that prioritizes damage dealt, and ignores the damage they take back, the suicidal fools.

At least she got some skill, but the poor girl needs a better levelup than that.

That is a nice little maneuver to get the healing off just before she reaches the front lines, even if you do end up waiting for help before Caede really enters the fray.

Still keeping so many of them alive...I guess old habits die hard.

The two really make a good pair, claiming kills together.

It is a funny little back and forth, advancing only to retreat after they start moving.

Even more strength...She is a beast, even before she pulls out the power of forged effective damage.

A noble duel for the archers.I guess this shows Norne is clearly better than the enemy archers at least.

It is a little spooky to see her potentially taking over half her health from a player phase counter and not reliably kill, but luck has favored her boldness today, and Marth is close enough to save her anyway.

Finally a good levelup from her...but she could kinda use another like that.

*Pink Floyd's The Wall plays*

Yeah, the biggest benefit of recruiting most dudes during this run (other than having more bodies to form walls with) is getting to strip their gear off of them.

And yeah, the AI does seem to care about inflicting damage the most.

Keeping guys alive is partly that and partly not wanting to go low enough on troop numbers to end up getting generic replacements added to the army. The next couple of chapters will have higher body counts, though, as I slim down the ranks ahead of chapter 6.

Yep, Caeda and Norne have made a good double act in this chapter and the last one.

Also, even if I don't respond to them very often, I do appreciate your comments on specific moves I make.

Yeah, I'm hoping that Norne'll get another level like the one she just got soon. Though at least her Speed is getting high enough that she might double slow enemies.

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Part 5 - Chapter 4

Here's another update. This time, there's a couple of new recruits, more than a little bloodshed, and a few scary moments.

Spoiler

As I mentioned at the end of the last update, with this chapter I finally have access to the preparation screen before battle, which has a number of useful options. Now that I have access to forging, I decided to upgrade Caeda's Wing Spear a bit. This is actually the first time I'm using forging in this game - I didn't bother with it when I played through the first time. I don't want to spend too much on it, though, so I just give it +3 Mt and +5 Hit, plus a slightly silly name.

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I also take advantage of being able rearrange the starting formation, so Caeda will be able to take out the Thief to the west of our starting position first thing.

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I could also take less than our full crew into battle now, but having extra bodies to set up walls with has been useful. Plus 15 units (including Marth) is a few too many to be keeping around with the number of recruits I'll be getting in this chapter and particularly the next if I want to get Athena's Gaiden chapter, so some will be coming along so they can make the ultimate sacrifice.

There's nothing else I need to do on the prep screen, so let's get started. As I suggested earlier, first off Caeda removes the Thief to the west of our starting position - he didn't even manage to hit her for the one damage he could have done. And since she almost had enough experience to level at the end of last chapter, this kill got her there, and while she didn't get Strength this time, she got Defense which is an even rarer growth for her, so I absolutely can't complain.

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Everyone else is getting sent north to deal with the Fighters up there. Draug gets put into the range of the closest Fighter since he's the best for taking hits.

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Which Draug demonstrates by taking only a single point of damage on Enemy Phase.

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To start off the next turn, I send Caeda north, since the other Thief that's on this map is heading for that bridge. I do have to be careful of a Hunter that's up there, though.

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I have Marth go ahead and clear out one of the northern Fighters - I don't want to take too long with these guys since I have five Cavaliers heading my way from the western side of the map, and taking out the one I did lets me have less troops exposed to the Fighters as well. He dodges the Fighter's attack and gets an okay level out of the deal.

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I move Draug into the space the dead Fighter had been occupying, and Abel steps up next to him.

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Norne moves north as well so she can take a shot at one of the Fighters. The Steel Bow would only take two shots to kill while the Iron Bow would take three, and the hit rate isn't too bad, so that's what I choose to go with, and she does manage to hit.

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I move the rest of my troops around a bit to form a better defensive wall in anticipation of the Cavaliers moving in, though it will still take a little while for them to get here.

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On Enemy Phase Draug takes another minor dent to his armor, while Abel takes more damage than I'd really like him to from another Fighter and the Hunter, although he could survive another round of that.

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Both the Hunter and the Thief near Caeda moved on Enemy Phase. I'm worried about the Hunter, but if I have her take out him out this turn, the Thief will probably move too close to the group of Cavaliers for her get the kill next turn. After doing some quick calculations, it looks like the Hunter would do 13 damage to her - painful but survivable. I have her move as far north as she can while still being able to attack the Thief, to maximize the distance between her and the group of Cavaliers. I'm using the Javelin even though there's a small chance she won't kill the Thief so that she'll retaliate against the Hunter and probably kill him when he attacks on Enemy Phase. But she lands both hits so as long as my calculations hold up things will turn out alright.

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Norne takes a second shot at the Fighter she wounded last turn but he dodges it this time.

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I go ahead and move Abel out of the northern wall so Lena can heal him.

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Marth removes another one of the northern Fighters - as I said before, I don't want to have to fend off the Cavaliers that are coming in from the west for too long so these Fighters have to die relatively quickly. He does take a little bit of damage in the process this time, though.

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I do want Norne to get some experience here, though, so I have Draug and Cain move around a little to reform the wall blocking the Fighters from killing themselves on Marth.

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Cain manages to dodge the Fighter swinging at him, and Marth does the same for the Hunter that shot at him. Caeda does take the hit from the Hunter near her, but my calculations that she'd survive it were correct and she did kill him in retaliation as expected.

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Caeda heads back towards our main force, and I have her use a Vulnerary to heal up most of the way to full - I'd really rather not have her stay at such low health for very long.

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Norne takes another shot at the Fighter she wounded before, and lands it for the kill this time.

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I have Marth take out the last of the northern Fighters, though he gets a hit in on Marth before going down. Now the Hunter is the only remnant of the group that started up here, which is good because the Cavaliers are just short of reaching our troops this turn.

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Speaking of the Cavaliers getting closer, I start moving people north to minimize the number of potential targets they will have to go for.

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The Hunter does a little bit of damage to Cain on his last turn alive.

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And then he's taken out by Caeda at the beginning of the next Player Phase - I didn't want him sticking around and causing problems - and she gets a mediocre level from the kill. Ah well, she's gotten plenty of good ones this run so the occasional dud is okay, as long as she doesn't start making a habit of it.

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Otherwise, this turn is spent repositioning my troops to get most of them out of the range of the Cavaliers that are just reaching us. Norne is kept towards the front so she'll be able to start shooting next turn, while Lena is there because this is the group with Matthis in it, who I am planning to recruit even if it would be easier to just kill him off. I feel sorry for the guy, okay? And if some of my choices for the wall seem a bit odd, well, I am trying to get certain people killed this chapter.

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Every member of the wall takes damage on Enemy Phase, though one of the Cavaliers didn't manage to get into position to attack.

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Now for some careful position shifting, and me being very thankful none of these guys have 2 range.  Barst moves over a space to make room for Lena to talk to Matthis.

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I need to get Matthis behind our lines, but some shifting among the other troops needs to happen first.  Norne moves to where she can take a shot at a Cavalier who's carrying an Armorslayer - he's the only one who's a threat to Draug, who I'd like to be able to plug gaps in the wall with if necessary. The Armorslayer Cavalier is actually weighed down enough that she can double him - thank you Speed levels - though she's not doing much damage unless she uses the Steel Bow. She lands both hits, so she should be able to finish the job handily next turn.

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Draug heads closer to the action, while Julian and Gordin move further away from it.

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I have Marth move next to Caeda so he can pull the other Javelin I bought out of the Convoy and give it Caeda, since she's almost used hers up.

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Matthis finally retreats to a safe position next to Marth, which means I can cross off their Talk conversation as well.

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I can afford to have Caeda take Matthis's place - as displayed last chapter, the AI will try to maximize damage done, so since she has higher Defense than any one else they can reach (thank you, Defense level) they shouldn't attack her on Enemy Phase. And even if I'm wrong about that there's no way for them to do enough damage to kill her. From that position I have her weaken one of the Cavalier for Norne to finish off later.

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The first casualty of the chapter happens as a Cavalier finishes off Wrys. Thank you for your brief but honorable service as a healer, and go gently to your rest.

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Unfortunately, his death reveals a slight flaw in my strategy - the Armorslayer Cavalier can now move into the space Wrys had occupied and attack Draug. I get lucky when he misses, though, while the other two Cavaliers damage Castor and Darros. (Though even if I hadn't gotten lucky, as can be seen in the screenshot the Armorslayer Cavalier doesn't have quite enough damage to one-shot Draug.)

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That Armorslayer Cavalier needs to die immediately - Draug is too useful as a wall for me to want him dead - and since Norne hit him twice last turn she can use her Iron Bow to practically guarantee he goes down. He doesn't even get lucky enough to dodge the first shot, so that threat is now gone.

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Now that the coast is clear, Draug moves down to join the wall fending off the Cavaliers, while Lena moves next to Marth so she can be safe and get a bit of healing experience. Which ends up being enough to get her a not half bad level.

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Caeda weakens another one of the Cavaliers, this time not even taking any damage from him.

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And Barst closes ranks a little to finish off the turn.

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A Cavalier finishes off Castor for the second casualty of the chapter. He has a rather poignant death quote, but sacrifices must be made. And the remaining two Cavaliers use the opening Castor's death created to double team Darros, resulting in the third casualty of the chapter. As he lived, so did he die... sounding like a pirate.

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These other Cavaliers aren't weighed down enough for Norne to double them, unlike the Armorslayer Cavalier, but she should still be able to take out one per turn with her Iron Bow. I chose the western one to try to open a path for Barst.

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She succeeded, as expected, so Barst moves over a couple of spaces to reform the wall keeping most of my forces safe.

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I move Caeda around to weaken the last healthy Cavalier, which she does, but I didn't entirely think her positioning through. Since she's blocking off one of Barst's sides, leaving only one space to attack Barst from, one of the Cavaliers will kill themselves on her during Enemy Phase unless I give them another target that's squishier than her.

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A simple solution soon presents itself, though - if I have Draug back up a space, Barst will be able to be attacked from two sides.

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Barst takes a strike each from both Cavaliers on Enemy Phase, as planned.

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Norne kills another Cavalier, giving her enough experience that she'll level up from killing the remaining one.

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Draug moves back to his previous position, and now that Caeda doesn't need to weaken anymore Cavaliers, I have her visit Lena for some healing.

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The last Cavalier continues beating on Barst, but his end is nigh.

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Downing him at the start of the next Player Phase does give Norne her level - no Strength this time, but at least she got HP along with Skill and Speed, which she does still need both of.

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With the Cavaliers finished off, our army has to travel west for a bit to encounter more foes, which I won't cover in detail. One thing I do realize while moving is that I forgot to have Matthis put his Iron Lance in the Convoy, so I fixed that. I also had Lena heal Cain during this, mostly for the experience.

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Once we get close enough to the next set of enemies, I place Draug into their range to hopefully draw them closer, while moving a few others close by.

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The Archers (but not the Knight accompanying them that's blocking a bridge) get baited out by Draug, though only one can get close enough to attack and that one doesn't even hit him.

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Norne can actually double these Archers, even with the Steel Bow since they're also using Steel Bows.  The hit chance could be a little better and she'll likely take a bit of damage, but I think it's worth a shot to see if she can take one out by herself. And not only does she manage to land both shots to secure the kill, the Archer missed his own attack, so she wasn't even damaged.

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Caeda takes out the other Archer easily with just her Iron Lance.

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Since everyone but the Knight has been dealt with, and he doesn't seem inclined to move, I have Marth visit the nearby village.

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And that village contains our second recruit for the map, Merric. Alas, in this run he will have no chances to flex his magical muscle, so I just have him move to the other side of Marth and dump what he's carrying into the Convoy. Not that Excalibur will be able to be used by anyone this run, but getting it out of his hands will prevent any accidents.

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I do move Draug to protect Norne, just in case the Knight changes his mind about moving.

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The Knight still doesn't move, but a couple of Horsemen who were nearby do - apparently moving Draug where I did put him in their range. Not that they can damage him, but they made a game attempt at it during Enemy Phase.

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Since the only one who can reach the Horsemen this turn is Caeda, I need to have my troops back off so they will have to cross to our side of the river.  I have Merric move well away - if I need to make a wall I have better options. Norne and Caeda back off a fair ways as well.

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Marth moves onto the nearby Fort, which unfortunately is stil in range of the Horseman after he reaches it. I move Lena and Matthis out of their new range, but leave Barst where he is - I'd always planned for him to be the fourth casualty for this map, and he should absorb both the hits from the Horsemen.

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Things work out the way I expected them to on Enemy Phase, and the last of the chapter 2 axe guys falls with a death quote that's only a little different from Bord and Cord's.

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Now, these Horseman are rather tough, with more HP than the other foes we've encountered this chapter, and I really don't want to test Caeda's ability to survive arrows a second time this chapter. Unfortunately, even using the Rapier Marth can't quite one shot these Horsemen unless he gets a lucky crit. It would drop one of them down low enough that Norne should be able to get the kill, though, so it's still worth doing even if I don't luck out with a crit.

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Marth didn't crit, so Norne needs to finish the job. Thankfully her Iron Bow would do enough damage, because even its hit rate is less certain than I'd like. She does hit, though, and gets a decent chunk of experience from the kill.

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There's still a second one to take care of, and More Wing gets to be broken in, since it's the only way Caeda will be able to kill this guy. On the other hand, at least it will be a guaranteed kill.

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Since the area is safe now, I have Lena move back over and heal Draug of his minor damage for experience since it's convenient to do so.

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The Knight continues to sit there being a roadblock. I could take him out with one of the effective weapons I have, but he's not really that much of a threat. What I end up deciding to do is have Marth wear him down most of the way with his Steel Sword, which sets up Norne to have two chances to kill him with her Steel Bow. She only needs the first chance though, and gets another meh level - I appreciate that you've decided that getting HP is good, Norne, but could you please get another Strength level?

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More moving Lena to make sure she stays near the action, and more not that necessary healing for experience. And Caeda heads towards where the boss awaits, along with a Curate we may want to take out beforehand.

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Another turn of moving and superfluous healing - Caeda could've reached the boss this turn, but I wanted to wait to assess all my options for dealing with him.

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Norne would be kind of useless against the boss, but she can take out the Curate by herself.

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Since this boss drops the Ridersbane he's using, it would be in our best interests to keep it as intact as possible. So having Caeda murder him with More Wing does end up being the best option - Marth would have to hit twice with his unforged Rapier to kill, and has a worse hit rate because of the weapon triangle. Killing the boss gets Caeda another Strength level, and my only disappointment about that is that Norne isn't following her example a little more often.

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The boss's Ridersbane gets sent to the convoy to wait for us to have more than one lance user.

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That does it for the enemies in this chapter, but there's still a village we haven't visited. While Marth makes his way over there, I take the opportunity to have Lena heal Caeda for experience, which gives Lena another not too shabby level.

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Marth reaches the remaining village on the next turn, and he gets 5000 gold, a little more than we spent on forging the Wing Spear upgrade before starting this chapter.

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After that, I just send him back over to seize and end the chapter - the first Arena's on this map, but my usable units are getting plenty of experience so no need to risk using it, and the Armory didn't have anything I was in a hurry to buy.

We do get a nice Silver Sword as a reward for completing the chapter. The guy who gives it to us asks us to give it to Hardin, but that's not happening in this run.

It's starting to get a little hairy, doing these chapters with such a small number of actual combatants, but I think I handled it fairly well considering. Next update I'll be doing chapter 5, where we'll get Hardin and a bunch of other disposable guys.

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On 12/16/2022 at 5:48 PM, CelestialContrail said:

This is actually the first time I'm using forging in this game - I didn't bother with it when I played through the first time.

I also tend to underutilize the forging feature in....basically all of the Fire Emblem games.

 

On 12/16/2022 at 5:48 PM, CelestialContrail said:

 

I could also take less than our full crew into battle now, but having extra bodies to set up walls with has been useful. Plus 15 units (including Marth) is a few too many to be keeping around with the number of recruits I'll be getting in this chapter and particularly the next if I want to get Athena's Gaiden chapter, so some will be coming along so they can make the ultimate sacrifice.

Bringing along the cannon fodder is very necessary at the moment, although once you get to Athena do you plan on fielding less units? Any plans for trying to reach other low survival count gaiden chapters?

 

On 12/16/2022 at 5:48 PM, CelestialContrail said:

 

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She really is a blessed Caeda, with nothing really behind her averages, and that amazing Strength.

 

On 12/16/2022 at 5:48 PM, CelestialContrail said:

 

Both the Hunter and the Thief near Caeda moved on Enemy Phase. I'm worried about the Hunter, but if I have her take out him out this turn, the Thief will probably move too close to the group of Cavaliers for her get the kill next turn. After doing some quick calculations, it looks like the Hunter would do 13 damage to her - painful but survivable. I have her move as far north as she can while still being able to attack the Thief, to maximize the distance between her and the group of Cavaliers. I'm using the Javelin even though there's a small chance she won't kill the Thief so that she'll retaliate against the Hunter and probably kill him when he attacks on Enemy Phase. But she lands both hits so as long as my calculations hold up things will turn out alright.

Priq7E9.png rX9PZho.png

 

It always feels a little off to leave a flyer in enemy bow range, but she can deal with it...

 

On 12/16/2022 at 5:48 PM, CelestialContrail said:

 

I do want Norne to get some experience here, though, so I have Draug and Cain move around a little to reform the wall blocking the Fighters from killing themselves on Marth.

oGwjLrB.png nkJM4Y9.png

I just have this image in my head of the two of them physically holding Marth back, keeping him from wiping out the enemies left

 

On 12/16/2022 at 5:48 PM, CelestialContrail said:

 

9fmyPry.png

Wow, Caeda is really embarrassing that archer there.

 

On 12/16/2022 at 5:48 PM, CelestialContrail said:

while Lena is there because this is the group with Matthis in it, who I am planning to recruit even if it would be easier to just kill him off. I feel sorry for the guy, okay?

I have built up a bit of a soft spot for the guy as well, mostly thanks to some users on here who are adamant in using "bad units" for funsies (for instance Saint Rubenio still has a screenshot of an endgame Matthis in his sig...)

 

On 12/16/2022 at 5:48 PM, CelestialContrail said:

 

I have Marth move next to Caeda so he can pull the other Javelin I bought out of the Convoy and give it Caeda, since she's almost used hers up.

The Lord having the Convoy is a powerful thing, letting you approach some of the power of Thracia trading

 

On 12/16/2022 at 5:48 PM, CelestialContrail said:

I can afford to have Caeda take Matthis's place - as displayed last chapter, the AI will try to maximize damage done, so since she has higher Defense than any one else they can reach (thank you, Defense level) they shouldn't attack her on Enemy Phase. And even if I'm wrong about that there's no way for them to do enough damage to kill her. From that position I have her weaken one of the Cavalier for Norne to finish off later.

This feels like such a charming little culmination of things in this run, from the earlier AI reveal, and that lucky defense to make this clever maneuver seem natural.

 

On 12/16/2022 at 5:48 PM, CelestialContrail said:

 

The first casualty of the chapter happens as a Cavalier finishes off Wrys. Thank you for your brief but honorable service as a healer, and go gently to your rest.

ITi8TYa.png lTNlLny.png

RIP Wrys, truly the most impactful death so far thanks to his brief contribution as a healer.

 

On 12/16/2022 at 5:48 PM, CelestialContrail said:

 

Unfortunately, his death reveals a slight flaw in my strategy - the Armorslayer Cavalier can now move into the space Wrys had occupied and attack Draug. I get lucky when he misses, though, while the other two Cavaliers damage Castor and Darros. (Though even if I hadn't gotten lucky, as can be seen in the screenshot the Armorslayer Cavalier doesn't have quite enough damage to one-shot Draug.)

A funny, but understandable mistake to make. At least you weren't punished for it, plus

 

On 12/16/2022 at 5:48 PM, CelestialContrail said:

 

Kf6khCO.png 3C69biC.png

Lena could have healed Draug out of the danger zone, even if it did hit, so you could still use him like a wall there.

 

On 12/16/2022 at 5:48 PM, CelestialContrail said:

 

sYNLEBF.png

Ooh, some magic already.

 

On 12/16/2022 at 5:48 PM, CelestialContrail said:

 

A Cavalier finishes off Castor for the second casualty of the chapter. He has a rather poignant death quote, but sacrifices must be made. And the remaining two Cavaliers use the opening Castor's death created to double team Darros, resulting in the third casualty of the chapter. As he lived, so did he die... sounding like a pirate.

FS172rt.png EtYGojd.png

Huh, it is odd how poignant that is, given how much they hint at him being a con-artist in his other appearances.

 

On 12/16/2022 at 5:48 PM, CelestialContrail said:

 

Norne can actually double these Archers, even with the Steel Bow since they're also using Steel Bows.  The hit chance could be a little better and she'll likely take a bit of damage, but I think it's worth a shot to see if she can take one out by herself. And not only does she manage to land both shots to secure the kill, the Archer missed his own attack, so she wasn't even damaged.

6H4NQBA.png

At least there are some enemies that Norne has become powerful enough to one round.

 

On 12/16/2022 at 5:48 PM, CelestialContrail said:

 

The Knight still doesn't move, but a couple of Horsemen who were nearby do - apparently moving Draug where I did put him in their range. Not that they can damage him, but they made a game attempt at it during Enemy Phase.

taESB8d.png

Oops. At least it was Draug, the one most likely to survive an attack, whom accidentally drew those in.

 

On 12/16/2022 at 5:48 PM, CelestialContrail said:

 

qL7D6bX.png

There goes the last of the Axey Boy Triangle, at least he is with his axey friends now.

 

On 12/16/2022 at 5:48 PM, CelestialContrail said:

Now, these Horseman are rather tough, with more HP than the other foes we've encountered this chapter

They are technically promoted enemies, at least in the remake...

 

On 12/16/2022 at 5:48 PM, CelestialContrail said:

 

There's still a second one to take care of, and More Wing gets to be broken in, since it's the only way Caeda will be able to kill this guy. On the other hand, at least it will be a guaranteed kill.

rSoPHm1.png

The power of forged effective weapons are absurd in this game.

 

On 12/16/2022 at 5:48 PM, CelestialContrail said:

 

tk7TtBE.png

And like that, Strength is now the lowest stat she has (that has a growth rate at least).

 

On 12/16/2022 at 5:48 PM, CelestialContrail said:

 

Since this boss drops the Ridersbane he's using, it would be in our best interests to keep it as intact as possible. So having Caeda murder him with More Wing does end up being the best option

For a second there I was worried you were going to use all range attacks, with Norne very, very, very slowly chipping him down preserve that Ridersbane.

 

On 12/16/2022 at 5:48 PM, CelestialContrail said:

 

3bNb8ei.png

Even more Strength...what a beast.

 

On 12/16/2022 at 5:48 PM, CelestialContrail said:

 

qBbRuKe.png

Magic, and Speed, poor Norne is the only one having a hard time it seems.

 

On 12/16/2022 at 5:48 PM, CelestialContrail said:

 

We do get a nice Silver Sword as a reward for completing the chapter. The guy who gives it to us asks us to give it to Hardin, but that's not happening in this run.

This is such an odd little relic from the original, as before there were individual weapon ranks, there was a weapon level stat which dictated how powerful of weapons people could use, which didn't distinguish between types of weapons, so Hardin could use both Lances and Swords equally well, and use both Silver weapons at base. Alas in the remake they made him specialize in Lances, making this line kinda silly given how much effort is needed to let him actually use that Silver Sword.

 

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2 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

I also tend to underutilize the forging feature in....basically all of the Fire Emblem games.

Bringing along the cannon fodder is very necessary at the moment, although once you get to Athena do you plan on fielding less units? Any plans for trying to reach other low survival count gaiden chapters?

She really is a blessed Caeda, with nothing really behind her averages, and that amazing Strength.

It always feels a little off to leave a flyer in enemy bow range, but she can deal with it...

I just have this image in my head of the two of them physically holding Marth back, keeping him from wiping out the enemies left

Wow, Caeda is really embarrassing that archer there.

I have built up a bit of a soft spot for the guy as well, mostly thanks to some users on here who are adamant in using "bad units" for funsies (for instance Saint Rubenio still has a screenshot of an endgame Matthis in his sig...)

The Lord having the Convoy is a powerful thing, letting you approach some of the power of Thracia trading

This feels like such a charming little culmination of things in this run, from the earlier AI reveal, and that lucky defense to make this clever maneuver seem natural.

RIP Wrys, truly the most impactful death so far thanks to his brief contribution as a healer.

A funny, but understandable mistake to make. At least you weren't punished for it, plus

Lena could have healed Draug out of the danger zone, even if it did hit, so you could still use him like a wall there.

Ooh, some magic already.

Huh, it is odd how poignant that is, given how much they hint at him being a con-artist in his other appearances.

At least there are some enemies that Norne has become powerful enough to one round.

Oops. At least it was Draug, the one most likely to survive an attack, whom accidentally drew those in.

There goes the last of the Axey Boy Triangle, at least he is with his axey friends now.

They are technically promoted enemies, at least in the remake...

The power of forged effective weapons are absurd in this game.

And like that, Strength is now the lowest stat she has (that has a growth rate at least).

For a second there I was worried you were going to use all range attacks, with Norne very, very, very slowly chipping him down preserve that Ridersbane.

Even more Strength...what a beast.

Magic, and Speed, poor Norne is the only one having a hard time it seems.

This is such an odd little relic from the original, as before there were individual weapon ranks, there was a weapon level stat which dictated how powerful of weapons people could use, which didn't distinguish between types of weapons, so Hardin could use both Lances and Swords equally well, and use both Silver weapons at base. Alas in the remake they made him specialize in Lances, making this line kinda silly given how much effort is needed to let him actually use that Silver Sword.

Yeah, me too, though if we get a Genealogy remake I'd like to see reforging there - I think it'd work well with the limited in number but always repairable weapons of that game.

I don't know that I'll have enough active combat units even with Athena to forgo bringing along meat shields - 4 attackers plus a healer is still a rather small team - but once I get to chapter 10 and pick up Maria and Minerva it'll probably become feasible to field just my usable team, particularly since I'll be able to pick up two more additions in the next two chapters after that. And no, I'm not planning to try for any of the other Gaiden chapters other than maybe 24x, since the rest of the characters that can be recruited from them are the wrong gender to be useful during this run.

And yeah, I'm certainly not complaining that Caeda's turning out amazing in this play through.

That Marth mental image is pretty amusing. :^)

You're right, Draug getting Armorslayered would've turned out to be a fairly easily recoverable error if he had been hit, but the Cavalier with it going after him definitely had me panicking a bit in the moment.

Effective weapons tripling the power of any Mt you add to a forged weapon is definitely kinda busted, but I can't complain about it making my life a little easier while low manning these chapters.

Oof, chipping the boss down from range sounds very tedious, particularly since neither Norne's damage nor her hit rate were that great against him. Caeda could've also helped with her Javelin, but still...

I'm glad Lena's levels so far have been good, I definitely want to try reclassing her to Mage once I get Maria to take over the healing duties. And yes, poor Norne seems to be getting all the bad level up luck, though I'm managing to find ways to make her useful regardless.

Hmm, I don't think I've used Hardin before, so I didn't realize him using it would be difficult even in a more normal run. I haven't played FE1 myself, but I have read through a couple of Let's Plays of it, so I'm a little familiar with its mechanics. It is a bit amusing that they left the line in the remake after switching to more modern weapon rank mechanics, though.

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Part 6 - Chapter 5

A mid-week update this time. I've honestly been having a lot of fun doing this, even with getting into the occasional sticky situation.

Spoiler

For the first time, we have more units than we can actually take with us into battle, even with all the casualties in the last chapter. So Gordin, Merric, and Julian are being left on the bench this time.

59smKMh.png

My starting troop arrangement has Draug where he can easily bait in the Cavaliers to our north, and Caeda on the west side since a couple of Thieves will be heading towards this map's only village from that direction so I'll need her to be able to intercept them.

QnIy49b.png

Since Caeda's forged Wing Spear was quite helpful last chapter, I decided to forge Marth's Rapier this time. The name I give it is a play on the phrase 'rapier wit'.

HlpdFFo.png aL1RK9i.png

At the beginning of the map we're given control of Hardin and the Wolfguard. Now, I have no intentions of any of the Wolfguard making it out of this chapter alive, but I do want to keep Hardin alive and I'd like to get as much of their equipment as I can into the hands of my army. So I'm going to try to consolidate their gear onto fewer characters and have them head towards the rest of my army as fast as possible.

The first thing I do is have Roshea head as far north as possible while staying out of danger and unequip his weapon in case he gets attacked on a later turn.

L4CuV1i.png wLHnY5y.png

Next I send Wolf to the spot next to him and trade Wolf's gear to Roshea.

yESXkkQ.png jpNAG6j.png

Then I have Vyland stop just short of the spot I intend to move Hardin to, so Hardin will be able to grab his Steel Lance later.

0othgPS.png 

Sedgar is the next to move, taking one of the other spaces next to Vyland so he can trade his Steel Bow to Vyland for Hardin to take as well.

yd6qdag.png Shn6F3W.png

Finally I move Hardin into the spot I kept open from him and have him grab everything Vyland's carrying to complete the trade chain. (I had Hardin unequip his Steel Sword earlier while figuring out my moves.)

barAMGh.png 7kEOfe8.png

hTCNTaL.png

Over on the eastern side of the map, I move Draug into one of the Cavaliers' ranges, then move Marth and Norne next to him so they'll be ready to attack.

SAzZ8IV.png mLIGRdx.png

mbkQYsd.png

Lena moves up next to Norne, and I put most of my remaining units around her in a protective wall.

0cySqDd.png GFBmpO2.png

vKYQupd.png CSaVY7S.png

Ez6PvLQ.png dcT3vOv.png

Caeda heads north as far as she can without pulling the Cavaliers her direction instead.

41PGO57.png

On Enemy Phase, the baited Cavalier hits Draug but it bounces off his armor, while the other two Cavaliers headed farther east so they can take the bridge on that side.

tRjfCaO.png

The first thing I do on Player Phase is to continue moving Hardin's group north, starting with Roshea and Hardin. I have to unequip the weapons of those two again, as well.

dn0owkK.png LdZSF0q.png

X34AEPq.png T6pivfS.png

Gy1XAxM.png BKNmekz.png

1CcF4u8.png

On the eastern side, Marth takes out one of the Cavaliers. (I misclicked to have Marth attack here - I wanted to at least use his Iron Sword instead of his Steel one - which is why the screenshot is bad - I wasn't ready to take one.)

96EYUs1.png

Norne does some damage to another Cavalier with her Iron Bow - she doubles them with it but not the Steel Bow right now, so she does a little more damage this way.

PVPkGiI.png 

I move Caeda north to camp the bridge next to the village, and have her swap to her Iron Lance instead of More Wing while I'm think about it.

Yr79WkR.png jzXBL05.png

Hardin's group gets swarmed on Enemy Phase, with Sedgar and Wolf being their targets of choice because of their slightly lower defense. On the eastern side, the remaining Cavaliers go after Cain and Matthis.

gNddHmt.png 1pnGNxy.png

1NUfI6h.png u5r1gep.png

80XkGc1.png LVHQUOk.png

sjhc0G9.png

Unfortunately, the enemies managed to block off Hardin's escape route. I do send Roshea as far east as I can, and Hardin north as much as possible. Knowing Sedgar and Wolf will be the enemies' primary targets, I adjusted their positions a little hoping it would help draw the enemies away from Hardin enough for him to be able to get away next turn.

3HTUfWj.png f8lp6Ii.png

izczdha.png nCYO96C.png

Matthis moves out of the way so that Marth can kill the remaining healthy Cavalier.

i4dkryk.png ks9lTWh.png

A little bit of shuffling lets Norne get into place to whittle down the injured Cavalier some more.

wSplxd0.png R6RvAIU.png

An11zaw.png

Sedgar goes down at the beginning of Enemy Phase, while one of the Knights moves in to take out Wolf. The rest of the enemies on that side go for Vyland, only failing to kill him because he dodged one of the attacks. The last remaining Cavalier in the east ends up attacking Ogma.

ceienQK.png iSTz0f7.png

tt5CIyj.png 5x92tjo.png

xmLXZpe.png ek1At9Z.png

uftAiaY.png 6zkBwJR.png

HeHjpQ7.png

The first thing I do is take the opportunity to get Hardin away from the mass of enemies in the west.

AY8I6UM.png

Then Norne finishes off the injured Cavalier, moving westwards in the process.

3KdIw7k.png

I move Draug and Marth over to start setting up a defensive posture around the westernmost of the southern bridges.

i8RejrI.png Eor7oPq.png

Roshea moves south past the bridge, ending next to Marth so he can dump his inventory into the Convoy.

LR9Z0yz.png 0UgrhwM.png

I send the rest of my nearby troops over to the western bridge as well.

ENh6hZ4.png GaCjK7z.png

QM0bsaP.png xin3U66.png

Unfortunately, the Thieves decided to take the bridge that Caeda wasn't guarding, so now they're both in range of the village and Caeda can only take out one of them. Hopefully placing her on top of the village entrance will force them to attack her - I don't think they can attack the sides of a village in this game. This does unfortunately put her inside of the range of the Pegasus Knight that's over to the east, but I don't think it will put her into too much danger. (And it seems I missed taking a screenshot of this movement.)

Vyland is the next member of the Wolfguard to lose his life. Caeda defeats the Pegasus Knight easily when she comes after her, though unfortunately moving into the Pegasus Knight's range starts Wendell and an Archer moving. The Thieves do end up killing themselves on Caeda - she even got a crit on the last one - and she gets an okay level that caps her Speed.

cioS6i1.png 8HUIy9M.png

ew4W5wF.png 2zG3pcM.png

n3PKUa8.png

jaot31D.png

Roshea moves south a bit so I can have Hardin park himself next to Marth for a talk and a chance to offload everything he's carrying into the Convoy.

8yyUwzQ.png nQDJlMB.png

msDCJg6.png 8qo6Djz.png

I have Norne move into the safe spot next to Draug next.

fLBn9By.png

Caeda moves into a spot where only a single Cavalier can attack her - most importantly getting her out of the range of the nearby Archer.

LcLSgLQ.png

A Pegasus Knight goes after Draug but can do no damage, while Caeda takes out the Cavalier that went after her. Unfortunately, most of the enemy forces head in Caeda's direction, though Wendell is still heading in Marth's general direction.

5IzNjH6.png JimlRzx.png

And Marth can't quite reach Wendell this turn for the recruitment, so I'll have to make sure everyone gets out of his range. I start by moving Hardin out of the way so Norne can shoot down the Pegasus Knight.

xs3PVHg.png yElFmEa.png

A bit of shuffling puts Marth at the edge of Wendell's range and gets everyone else out of it.

Jvee7dp.png VcJoN9c.png

pUfjT7W.png ItOuD4L.png

NmJTPOR.png

Finally, I have Caeda move to somewhere no one can reach her.

aNkzbf4.png

A Cavalier heads south and sticks Navarre with a Javelin on Enemy Phase. The Knights also head south, though the Archers continue trying to get to Caeda. And of course, Wendell has to move in the wrong direction so that I can't reach him with Marth this turn unless I kill the Cavalier, which only Marth can one round of the troops I have in the area. *deep sigh*

v0ZRFC7.png

Draug moves out of Marth's way so he can kill the Cavalier. I'm going have Marth use his Wittier to get a one-shot here - he's going to have to tank a hit from Wendell (thankfully only one since Wendell doesn't double him) and I'd really rather not have him take more damage this turn on top of that.

zcDVXhR.png vMYSi6c.png

Then I move everyone else out of Wendell's range so he won't attack someone else he could hurt worse than Marth.

UnvMbKU.png txCez0b.png

TVCrEOY.png

Caeda moves to a space where the Archers can't possibly reach her - maybe that will make them give up.

XNvoCI9.png

Wendell takes off a large chunk of Marth's HP as I had planned for, and Caeda rendering herself unreachable did convince the Archers to start heading elsewhere.

LSdmNJr.png

First off I have Lena heal most of the damage Wendell did to him.

kIjwL7s.png FtejVl6.png

Next Marth moves a space closer so he can talk to Wendell.

jEvKzKS.png UF1AgfV.png

Once Wendell's under my command, I have him move to the space south of Marth so he can dump his stuff into the Convoy.

YZ3Sjxr.png 0pbR5yK.png

Draug's not close enough to resume his damage blocking duties, so I move Roshea to fend off some damage from Marth. I also move Draug and Norne closer to the action again, and switch who's getting a turn on the nearby Fort for healing.

UqZphQD.png gbjge2U.png

JUMc1Ur.png jiBYzp8.png

GpUKklV.png

And now that the Archers have headed south a bit, I have Caeda beeline to the west so she can head over and deal with the boss while everyone else is handling the other enemies.

DHuJezT.png

Roshea takes a lot of damage during Enemy Phase, though he doesn't quite die due to a lucky dodge.

j8Kknxx.png 8FHCW6G.png

UpSIzvn.png JYQPHqm.png

I move Roshea out of the way so Marth can take out the Knight with the better weapon with his Wittier - I really don't want Marth taking a hit from this Knight, he's going to have to eat a few hits on Enemy Phase as is. (Which I apparently also missed taking a screenshot of.) And Marth gets a so-so level from killing the Knight, while the Door Key this guy was carrying gets sent to the Convoy.

FUJYqaZ.png

W2YEu0Q.png

yjW2b69.png

Draug gets sent east to block the bridge there in preparation for some careful baiting of damage away from Marth.

mKqugft.png

I station Norne below him and switch to her Steel Bow - she can double these Archers so I'm hoping to bait one into going after her on Enemy Phase.

fwlCfUP.png

Hardin is also placed into Archer range - he has more defense than Norne but less than Marth, so should be just the right amount of tempting to not spoil my plans with Norne. This arrangement should take two or three hits off of Marth, depending on how the enemy order works out and who goes after Roshea who's also in range.

FPOMDBn.png

Since Caeda can't reach the Curate to take him out this turn, I have her move a little closer and take a rest on a Fort.

gll6RjS.png

I also do another swap of people on the Fort on the southern front. (I'm not having Lena do much healing this chapter because her Heal staff is running low and I forgot to buy her another one on the prep screen.)

seWz803.png twdAgZ2.png

The Knight moves to get rid of Roshea, unfortunately occupying the space an Archer would need to use to take a shot at Hardin. The last of the Wolfguard has fallen. But the spot Roshea was in lets one of the Archers take a shot at Matthis, and another Archer takes my bait and attacks Norne, who shoots back and kills them. Marth is lucky enough to dodge one of the Archers, at least.

lQfcJYv.png vv0nNsv.png

o6xACU7.png Hd3MtbT.png

WneJeaS.png LOVddnT.png

I have Caeda go ahead and take out the Curate near her first thing before tackling the southern front.

WTScgIf.png

I have Cain move off the Fort so Matthis can take a turn on it.

SejrVVo.png 6v1ratX.png

Two Archers can reach Norne this turn, and she can survive taking one hit from each of them, so I don't feel a need to heal her yet. I don't want to switch Marth away from the Wittier since the Knight will go after him this turn and I don't want to waste uses of it on one of the Archers, so I just have him use a Vulnerary this turn. I'll leave Hardin where he is to hopefully draw the Archer who can't reach Norne this round away from Marth.

FI1LRbR.png

The Knight kills himself on Marth as I expected him to, but Norne doesn't quite kill the Archer that goes after her - this one has slightly higher Defense and HP than the other ones. So one Archer shoots at Hardin and the other one shoots at Marth, though Marth manages to dodge.  We're also starting to get reinforcements from the west side of the map.

VmStx07.png 7Z4Bc0C.png

SWRZqC4.png oNvkjTd.png

Caeda can take out the boss this turn, so I have her do it, sending the Silver Lance he drops to the Convoy.

ptMxXGq.png bOyP7aZ.png

Norne finishes off the Archer she didn't quite kill on Enemy Phase, and gets a completely empty level. Norne, please, you need to be doing better than that.

ZBif9Br.png

7WykQeC.png

Marth kills off one of the two remaining Archers, and I move Hardin to block the bridge since moving Marth left it open.

N9N4CZh.png ady9yj2.png

I also go ahead and have Lena heal Norne.

xMP54FE.png 1uhCeXf.png

The last Archer goes after Norne, who doesn't kill him because I switched to her Iron Bow to kill the other Archer, but she does dodge the hit from him.

dXwk0ly.png

Norne remedies the situation on Player Phase without any problems, and Caeda takes out the one Cavalier reinforcement as well - killing the boss has stopped any further reinforcements from coming out - and ends up just shy of leveling.

btRrAio.png HmHKsJm.png

Now that there aren't any enemies left, the chapter's pretty much over, though there's still a little bit of stuff to take care of before seizing. Marth visits the village, getting the Firestone. I also have Caeda check out the Armory, though I don't feel the need to purchase anything they have right now.

OuwDDtd.png VzX3kzk.png

Once those things were taken care of, after some turns of just moving Marth I had him seize and end the chapter.

Some worse than usual luck with level ups this time, and I feel like I could've done a better job of not triggering additional groups of enemies to move, but everything worked out in the end. Next time, I'll be picking up another thief and (eventually) the Fire Emblem and making sure I've lost enough people to get the 6x Gaiden chapter.

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On 12/21/2022 at 5:29 PM, CelestialContrail said:

I've honestly been having a lot of fun doing this, even with getting into the occasional sticky situation.

Stimbling into the sticky situations is half the fun, as the other half is finding your way out of them 😛 .

 

On 12/21/2022 at 5:29 PM, CelestialContrail said:

 

Since Caeda's forged Wing Spear was quite helpful last chapter, I decided to forge Marth's Rapier this time. The name I give it is a play on the phrase 'rapier wit'.

HlpdFFo.png aL1RK9i.png

Top tier name for a Rapier!

 

On 12/21/2022 at 5:29 PM, CelestialContrail said:

At the beginning of the map we're given control of Hardin and the Wolfguard. Now, I have no intentions of any of the Wolfguard making it out of this chapter alive, but I do want to keep Hardin alive and I'd like to get as much of their equipment as I can into the hands of my army. So I'm going to try to consolidate their gear onto fewer characters and have them head towards the rest of my army as fast as possible.

When units die in Shadow Dragon, their inventory goes to the Convoy at the start of next chapter, so carrying the gear back to the rest of your army isn't all that vital a step in the future, unless you want to use that gear in that very chapter.

 

On 12/21/2022 at 5:29 PM, CelestialContrail said:

 

The first thing I do on Player Phase is to continue moving Hardin's group north, starting with Roshea and Hardin. I have to unequip the weapons of those two again, as well.

Although having to do that every turn sounds both annoying, and like something I would forget about...

 

On 12/21/2022 at 5:29 PM, CelestialContrail said:

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So very close to getting this kill Norne, if only you had one more strength.

 

On 12/21/2022 at 5:29 PM, CelestialContrail said:

 

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These poor guys get few enough lines as it is, did the game really have to give them almost identical death quotes.

 

On 12/21/2022 at 5:29 PM, CelestialContrail said:

Hopefully placing her on top of the village entrance will force them to attack her - I don't think they can attack the sides of a village in this game. This does unfortunately put her inside of the range of the Pegasus Knight that's over to the east, but I don't think it will put her into too much danger. (And it seems I missed taking a screenshot of this movement.)

That should protect the village, although thief AI can be kinda weird in these games, so I would also be uncertain of if they are aggressive or not.

 

On 12/21/2022 at 5:29 PM, CelestialContrail said:

Caeda defeats the Pegasus Knight easily when she comes after her, though unfortunately moving into the Pegasus Knight's range starts Wendell and an Archer moving

Although that group AI ends up adding in a bit of a complication.

 

On 12/21/2022 at 5:29 PM, CelestialContrail said:

The Thieves do end up killing themselves on Caeda - she even got a crit on the last one - and she gets an okay level that caps her Speed.

Fortunately thieves are aggressive when blocked in this game, so at least one major problem was dealt with.

 

On 12/21/2022 at 5:29 PM, CelestialContrail said:

And Marth can't quite reach Wendell this turn for the recruitment, so I'll have to make sure everyone gets out of his range.

For some reason, I remember Wendell as one of the units that would recruit himself, but seeing him not do that in you run, I think its just that his AI always moves towards Marth (unless he can attack someone)

 

On 12/21/2022 at 5:29 PM, CelestialContrail said:

Finally, I have Caeda move to somewhere no one can reach her.

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The power of flight really gets her out of a hairy situation here.

 

On 12/21/2022 at 5:29 PM, CelestialContrail said:

 

Roshea takes a lot of damage during Enemy Phase, though he doesn't quite die due to a lucky dodge.

The second of the Wolf guard to dodge a death. They are just so desperate to cling to life, denied them by the needs of the run.

 

On 12/21/2022 at 5:29 PM, CelestialContrail said:

 

Hardin is also placed into Archer range - he has more defense than Norne but less than Marth, so should be just the right amount of tempting to not spoil my plans with Norne. This arrangement should take two or three hits off of Marth, depending on how the enemy order works out and who goes after Roshea who's also in range.

Now that is some clever enemy phase baiting...

 

On 12/21/2022 at 5:29 PM, CelestialContrail said:

The Knight moves to get rid of Roshea, unfortunately occupying the space an Archer would need to use to take a shot at Hardin.

...but the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.

 

On 12/21/2022 at 5:29 PM, CelestialContrail said:

But the spot Roshea was in lets one of the Archers take a shot at Matthis, and another Archer takes my bait and attacks Norne, who shoots back and kills them. Marth is lucky enough to dodge one of the Archers, at least.

Although I guess that worked out kinda similarly anyway.

 

On 12/21/2022 at 5:29 PM, CelestialContrail said:

 

The Knight kills himself on Marth as I expected him to, but Norne doesn't quite kill the Archer that goes after her - this one has slightly higher Defense and HP than the other ones. So one Archer shoots at Hardin and the other one shoots at Marth, though Marth manages to dodge.  We're also starting to get reinforcements from the west side of the map.

Ouch, that slight enemy variance really slowed down Norne's moment to shine.

 

On 12/21/2022 at 5:29 PM, CelestialContrail said:

Caeda can take out the boss this turn, so I have her do it, sending the Silver Lance he drops to the Convoy.

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Caeda's solo flying mission finally comes to a dramatic finish.

 

On 12/21/2022 at 5:29 PM, CelestialContrail said:

Norne finishes off the Archer she didn't quite kill on Enemy Phase, and gets a completely empty level. Norne, please, you need to be doing better than that.

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...it just had to be Norne to get the blank levelup, the poor girl.

 

On 12/21/2022 at 5:29 PM, CelestialContrail said:

making sure I've lost enough people to get the 6x Gaiden chapter.

Good luck, as there are quite a few units to kill off next chapter.

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9 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

Stimbling into the sticky situations is half the fun, as the other half is finding your way out of them 😛 .

Top tier name for a Rapier!

When units die in Shadow Dragon, their inventory goes to the Convoy at the start of next chapter, so carrying the gear back to the rest of your army isn't all that vital a step in the future, unless you want to use that gear in that very chapter.

Although having to do that every turn sounds both annoying, and like something I would forget about...

So very close to getting this kill Norne, if only you had one more strength.

These poor guys get few enough lines as it is, did the game really have to give them almost identical death quotes.

That should protect the village, although thief AI can be kinda weird in these games, so I would also be uncertain of if they are aggressive or not.

Although that group AI ends up adding in a bit of a complication.

Fortunately thieves are aggressive when blocked in this game, so at least one major problem was dealt with.

For some reason, I remember Wendell as one of the units that would recruit himself, but seeing him not do that in you run, I think its just that his AI always moves towards Marth (unless he can attack someone)

The power of flight really gets her out of a hairy situation here.

The second of the Wolf guard to dodge a death. They are just so desperate to cling to life, denied them by the needs of the run.

Now that is some clever enemy phase baiting...

...but the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.

Although I guess that worked out kinda similarly anyway.

Ouch, that slight enemy variance really slowed down Norne's moment to shine.

Caeda's solo flying mission finally comes to a dramatic finish.

...it just had to be Norne to get the blank levelup, the poor girl.

Good luck, as there are quite a few units to kill off next chapter.

Re: Sticky situations - True. :^)

Ah, I didn't realize I'd still get their gear if they died. Nice to know for the future, though everything worked out fine this time anyway.

Yeah, Wendell clearly didn't recruit himself, though I didn't bring Merric so that might've made a difference.

It's kind of sad that so many of the characters in this game have so little characterization that they don't even get distinctive death quotes. (Admittedly, my choices for units to sacrifice do intentionally go for characters who got the short end of the characterization stick.)

Caeda definitely had a bit of an adventure this chapter, though it all worked out in the end.

My level up luck wasn't great in general this chapter (and didn't really get better in the next one either).

As far as killing off units in the next chapter, all of the casualties this chapter and last chapter put my army just low enough to qualify for 6x. So since I recruited Rickard in chapter 6, I just had to kill off one character to get the Gaiden chapter.

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Part 7 - Chapter 6

Here's a second update this week. There may be extra updates next week as well, since I have the entire week off from work, so I'll have plenty of time to play games.

Spoiler

This will be the crucial chapter for determining whether or not I get to go to chapter 6x or not. Currently, there are exactly 15 units in my army, and Serenes Forest says that the required number of characters to trigger the Gaiden chapter is 15 or less. I will be recruiting Rickard this chapter, so I'll need to lose one person to hit the threshold. Also, the deployment limit is 14 this time, so Merric will be sitting the chapter out.

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I set up my initial starting placements - as you can see I gave Abel the Door Key we got last chapter to help speed up Rickard's recruitment. Otherwise I put my main units in the front with some handy meat shields following them.

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This time I remember to buy an extra Heal staff for Lena.

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As for forging this chapter, I decide to make Norne a really nice bow. It'll be good to have a high damage, high accuracy option for her that is still as light as an Iron Bow. And hey, maybe bribing her with nice gear will encourage her to get good levels. ;^) The name is a reference to Yggdrasill from Norse myth, which is associated to the Norns who are probably the source of Norne's name.

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Once we start the map, the first thing to do is get Rickard squared away. Abel opens the door for Julian, and Julian recruits Rickard.

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Draug and Caeda move forward, with Caeda setting a trap for the closest Knight by just entering the edge of his range with More Wing equipped. The Archers next to the Knight can't reach her there, and by next turn there'll be back up to support her if they move towards her.

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Norne and Lena also move forward.

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With Lena out of the way, I have Rickard move next to Marth and dump his Iron Sword into the Convoy.

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Marth and Navarre join the rest of the crew where the corridor turns, as do Hardin and Cain. Everyone else follows along behind them.

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On Enemy Phase, the Knight springs the trap I set up for him. The kill gets Caeda a completely empty level. She's blessed enough that I shouldn't complain too much, but... Some other enemies start moving towards us, but not the two Archers flanking the doorway leading north.

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Caeda's the only one who could attack any enemies this turn, but she'd have to expose herself to too much danger to do it. I do have her stay where she is and switch over to her Javelin, though - she's just in the range of a rather weak Mage, who she'll take little damage from and probably kill in exchange.

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Everyone else nearby moves closer to the action.

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Rickard immediately starts making himself useful by grabbing the chest closest to the entrance.

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Everyone else who's lagging behind also move forwards.

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The Mage attacks Caeda and dies from her retaliation, as expected. The enemies that started moving last turn continue to come closer.

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Taking care of all the enemies here is going to be a bit tricky to pull off. Norne has no hope against the Knights, so she'll have to be the one to take out the Archer to make it safe for Caeda to tackle one of the Knights. I don't want to leave things to chance so I have her use the Yggdra Bow I just made her to get a sure kill.

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Caeda then takes out the eastern of the two Knights with More Wing.

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I decide to have Marth use his Silver Sword to take out the Knight since I think it's possible that one of the Thieves nearby will try to go through him on Enemy Phase and I'd rather not waste Wittier uses on a Thief. And he even dodged the one attack the Knight got off on him before dying.

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Draug moves forward to block the doorway to the north.

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Lena moves westward and heals Caeda.

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Then comes more moving everyone forward.

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The Archers attack Marth and Draug, respectively. The Cavaliers from the northeast corner of the map have reached us as well, and most of the treasure from the chests on this map is in the hands of enemy Thieves now. The Killing Edge from the northeast chest will probably be lost, but I should be able to block all of the other Thieves from escaping.

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Draug switches from door blocking duty to Thief blocking duty, and Navarre joins him.

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Norne's odds for taking out one of the Archers with her Steel Bow are good enough that I don't feel the need to spend more Yggdra Bow uses here. And I really can't complain when she decides to crit.

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Caeda takes out the other Archer with her Iron Lance.

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I have Marth take out the more dangerous of the two Cavaliers with Wittier, expecting the other Cavalier to suicide on Math on Enemy Phase. The Master Key the Cavalier was carrying gets sent to the Convoy.

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Lena moves over a few spaces to heal Norne.

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Everyone else moves forward, again.

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The remaining Cavalier kills himself on Marth, and the Thieves continue trying to escape.

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Norne takes out the Curate that's hanging around in the room.

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I have Abel block the other doorway the Thieves would have to pass through to escape - Norne's a little behind on levels, so I'd like to feed all of the high experience Thieves to her.

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Caeda heads westwards towards the next group of enemies, and uses up the last use of one of her stacks of Javelins to weaken the nearby Thief.

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Lena moves into the northern room and heals Marth before he follows after Caeda.

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A little more troop rearrangement finishes off the turn. (I'm leaving a gap just in case one of the Thieves tries to go that way instead of through the door Abel's blocking, so that Norne would have an easy time moving into position to shoot them.)

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The Thieves conveniently line themselves up next to Abel for Norne take care of - the frontmost one hit Abel but can't damage him. The Theif holding the Killing Edge has almost escaped at this point, but there was nothing I could do about it - Caeda wouldn't have been able to catch him even if I had sent her after him.

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The frontmost Thief's Strength is so bad that the Iron Sword he's using weighs him down enough for Norne to double him. Norne gets a level from killing him, but doesn't get Strength or Speed unfortunately.

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I set up another trap for a Knight with Caeda and More Wing. Marth moves next to her to back her up next turn if the Archers near the Knight move.

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Caeda kills the Knight I had her bait in and Abel takes 1 HP in damage from the next Thief while the Killing Edge carrying Thief officially makes his escape.

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The Archers didn't move so I have Marth shift westwards a little so he can reach one of them next turn.

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Norne can't double this slightly stronger Thief so she'll have to take two turns to kill him.

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I go ahead and start having Lena catch up to Caeda and Marth - Norne and Abel clearly won't need her services while finishing off the Thieves.

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Abel takes another ding from the Thief on Enemy Phase.

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Norne finishes off the frontmost Thief, and sends the Armorslayer he was carrying to the Convoy.

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Caeda and Marth take out the Archers to the south of them with an Iron Lance and an Iron Sword, respectively.

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Lena continues moving towards Marth and Caeda, and I send most of the rest of my troops after her, though I make sure to block the doorway into the northeastern room in such a way that the remaining Thief shouldn't be tempted to change directions.

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The last Thief is too weak to damage Abel again.

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Norne uses the last shot of one of her Iron Bows to get rid of the last Thief.

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Caeda moves to a spot where Lena can reach her to heal her. That gives Lena enough experience for a level, and while she doesn't get Magic this time she does get both Skill and Speed.

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I move Marth closer to Caeda, and have Navarre bait in at least one of the Knights.

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I also move some potential meat shields closer, and do some other troop rearrangement.

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Just the one Knight that he was directly in range of went after Navarre on Enemy Phase.

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I go ahead and let Marth have the kill with Wittier, which gives him a so-so level.

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Navarre is put into place to lure what should be both another Knight and an Archer.

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Norne heads towards the action, though she probably won't make it over there in time to do much, and I do some more troop shifting.

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Both of the enemies I expected to go after Navarre on Enemy Phase do, but he survives thanks to dodging the Archer's attack.

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Caeda takes out the Archer with her Iron Lance, getting a rather bad level from the kill.

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Marth spends another use of Wittier to take out the Knight that was lured over.

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Navarre takes another turn as bait. (Yes, I am trying to get him killed here.)

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Norne continues her slow journey towards continued relevance in this chapter, and I move some of the rest of my troops closer to the action, as well as having Lena heal Draug for experience.

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Navarre lures in the Mage, who lands the killing blow on him. His death quote is one fitting for an edgelord.

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Taking out the Mage would've put Caeda into the range of the Archer, so I have Marth take care of it - he one shots the Mage even with an Iron Sword.

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And Norne heads towards the action again.

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The Archer moves in to attack Marth but he dodges it.

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Caeda eliminates the Archer on Player Phase, opening up the path to the boss.

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I move Abel out of the way so Norne can move as far as she can towards our main group.

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Lena goes ahead and fixes Abel's minor nicks for experience.

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I also move Wendell closer - I think I've correctly calculated the necessary number of casualties to get chapter 6x, but I'm planning to set up a save state as a precaution so I can feed extra units to the boss if it turns out I still have too many units alive to get the chapter.

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Norne continues moving forward because I want to feed her the Curate kill, and I put Caeda where she can easily reach the boss. I also move Marth up because it looks like More Wing won't quite one shot the boss and I want to weaken him a little to save a More Wing use.

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Lena moves to stand next to Norne so she can grab the Physic staff from her, and Wendell also moves forward to keep himself handy.

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Norne can't quite one round the Curate with her Iron Bow, so she decides to fix that by criting.

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I go ahead and make that save state I mentioned earlier before sending Marth in to chip the boss with a Steel Sword. Both Marth and the boss miss on their initial attacks, but Marth's second attack hits, which does enough damage to set Caeda up for a one shot boss kill.

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Marth ends the chapter by seizing on the next turn, and gets the Fire Emblem - I send his Vulnerary to the Convoy in exchange for it. And I don't need to use the save state after all, as the game is taking me to chapter 6x. But that chapter will have to wait until next time.

Next time I'll be taking on chapter 6x, which I've never actually done before, and recruiting Athena. Also, I now have a Seraph Robe that I need to figure out who to give to. I'm considering giving it to Lena - her HP is low for a unit I'm considering actually using in combat, and her low growth isn't likely to change that - but I'm willing to entertain suggestions as to what I should do with it.

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16 hours ago, CelestialContrail said:

. I will be recruiting Rickard this chapter, so I'll need to lose one person to hit the threshold. Also, the deployment limit is 14 this time, so Merric will be sitting the chapter out.

YfDnBSM.png

The bench is the safest place for at this point, as someone will have to pay the gaiden's price this chapter

 

16 hours ago, CelestialContrail said:

 

As for forging this chapter, I decide to make Norne a really nice bow. It'll be good to have a high damage, high accuracy option for her that is still as light as an Iron Bow.

She can really use the help

 

16 hours ago, CelestialContrail said:

And hey, maybe bribing her with nice gear will encourage her to get good levels. ;^) The name is a reference to Yggdrasill from Norse myth, which is associated to the Norns who are probably the source of Norne's name.

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Now that is clever bit of mythological naming for that bow.

 

16 hours ago, CelestialContrail said:

 

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Having her equip even MORE WING for enemy phase, is when you know the chips are down.

 

16 hours ago, CelestialContrail said:

The kill gets Caeda a completely empty level. She's blessed enough that I shouldn't complain too much, but... Some other enemies start moving towards us, but not the two Archers flanking the doorway leading north.

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USVVpf8.png

She can afford it so much more than poor Norne could last chapter, plus with a stat capped it might not have been blank a level ago.

 

16 hours ago, CelestialContrail said:

 

Taking care of all the enemies here is going to be a bit tricky to pull off. Norne has no hope against the Knights, so she'll have to be the one to take out the Archer to make it safe for Caeda to tackle one of the Knights. I don't want to leave things to chance so I have her use the Yggdra Bow I just made her to get a sure kill.

HC70c4o.png

Seems everyone is pull out all of the forges, and thus all of the stops to power through this chapter.

 

17 hours ago, CelestialContrail said:

Draug moves forward to block the doorway to the north.

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Draug going for the classic strategy of choking the point.

 

17 hours ago, CelestialContrail said:

Norne's odds for taking out one of the Archers with her Steel Bow are good enough that I don't feel the need to spend more Yggdra Bow uses here. And I really can't complain when she decides to crit.

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Norne was nice enough to remove whatever worries I have seeing her lose half her health on player phase with that crit there.

 

17 hours ago, CelestialContrail said:

I have Marth take out the more dangerous of the two Cavaliers with Wittier, expecting the other Cavalier to suicide on Math on Enemy Phase. The Master Key the Cavalier was carrying gets sent to the Convoy.

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Although with how aggressively you are pressing in she was never in any real danger

 

17 hours ago, CelestialContrail said:

 

I have Abel block the other doorway the Thieves would have to pass through to escape - Norne's a little behind on levels, so I'd like to feed all of the high experience Thieves to her.

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Wow, aggressive enough to save the loot without a warp use it seems

 

17 hours ago, CelestialContrail said:

 

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That poor strength is falling further, and further behind.

 

17 hours ago, CelestialContrail said:

 

Caeda kills the Knight I had her bait in and Abel takes 1 HP in damage from the next Thief while the Killing Edge carrying Thief officially makes his escape.

I guess not all of the loot was saved, but everything but a killer sword is a good haul for a warpless strat.

 

17 hours ago, CelestialContrail said:

Caeda and Marth take out the Archers to the south of them with an Iron Lance and an Iron Sword, respectively.

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What a power couple with this synchronized archer killing display here 😛

 

17 hours ago, CelestialContrail said:

 

Caeda moves to a spot where Lena can reach her to heal her. That gives Lena enough experience for a level, and while she doesn't get Magic this time she does get both Skill and Speed.

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It looks so well planned with Caeda ending exactly out of enemy range as well.

 

17 hours ago, CelestialContrail said:

 

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More Speed, she is really preparing herself to become a combat mage.

 

17 hours ago, CelestialContrail said:

Both of the enemies I expected to go after Navarre on Enemy Phase do, but he survives thanks to dodging the Archer's attack.

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Another attempt to escape fate with a dodge

 

17 hours ago, CelestialContrail said:

 

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She is still doing well, but these bad levelups are a worrying trend for her

 

17 hours ago, CelestialContrail said:

Navarre lures in the Mage, who lands the killing blow on him. His death quote is one fitting for an edgelord.

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An Edgelord to the last breath.

 

17 hours ago, CelestialContrail said:

 

I also move Wendell closer - I think I've correctly calculated the necessary number of casualties to get chapter 6x, but I'm planning to set up a save state as a precaution so I can feed extra units to the boss if it turns out I still have too many units alive to get the chapter.

A wise move, and far less corpses than the alternative way to play it safe for reaching that casualty threshold.

 

17 hours ago, CelestialContrail said:

 

Norne can't quite one round the Curate with her Iron Bow, so she decides to fix that by criting.

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She is doing her best to show her appreciation for the forge.

 

17 hours ago, CelestialContrail said:

Next time I'll be taking on chapter 6x, which I've never actually done before, and recruiting Athena.

It is rare to see the gaiden chapters, and I get the funny feeling a lot of people haven't actually played them (unless you are using a mod). Not relevent for this run, but a fun little fact about them is they aren't properly scaled on higher difficulties, which tend to make most people that see them find them really easy.

 

18 hours ago, CelestialContrail said:

Also, I now have a Seraph Robe that I need to figure out who to give to. I'm considering giving it to Lena - her HP is low for a unit I'm considering actually using in combat, and her low growth isn't likely to change that - but I'm willing to entertain suggestions as to what I should do with it.

Lena is a good choice, although there is a good argument to be made for Caeda getting it too, as a flyer she might be far from healing at times, and doesn't have the highest of defense either.

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2 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

The bench is the safest place for at this point, as someone will have to pay the gaiden's price this chapter

She can really use the help

Now that is clever bit of mythological naming for that bow.

Having her equip even MORE WING for enemy phase, is when you know the chips are down.

She can afford it so much more than poor Norne could last chapter, plus with a stat capped it might not have been blank a level ago.

Seems everyone is pull out all of the forges, and thus all of the stops to power through this chapter.

Draug going for the classic strategy of choking the point.

Norne was nice enough to remove whatever worries I have seeing her lose half her health on player phase with that crit there.

Although with how aggressively you are pressing in she was never in any real danger

Wow, aggressive enough to save the loot without a warp use it seems

That poor strength is falling further, and further behind.

I guess not all of the loot was saved, but everything but a killer sword is a good haul for a warpless strat.

What a power couple with this synchronized archer killing display here 😛

It looks so well planned with Caeda ending exactly out of enemy range as well.

More Speed, she is really preparing herself to become a combat mage.

Another attempt to escape fate with a dodge

She is still doing well, but these bad levelups are a worrying trend for her

An Edgelord to the last breath.

A wise move, and far less corpses than the alternative way to play it safe for reaching that casualty threshold.

She is doing her best to show her appreciation for the forge.

It is rare to see the gaiden chapters, and I get the funny feeling a lot of people haven't actually played them (unless you are using a mod). Not relevent for this run, but a fun little fact about them is they aren't properly scaled on higher difficulties, which tend to make most people that see them find them really easy.

Lena is a good choice, although there is a good argument to be made for Caeda getting it too, as a flyer she might be far from healing at times, and doesn't have the highest of defense either.

Thank you, it's nice when my enjoyment of mythology comes in handy. :^) (Even if it also leads to me side-eying FE's use of mythological names sometimes, since they tend to be a bit loose with their inspiration.)

I was pushing a bit hard this chapter because I wanted to make sure I got most of the treasures - also since I don't have any Mages right now Knights are a bit hard to take out with any speed without using either effective weaponry or high tier weaponry, both of which are in somewhat limited supply so far. And I actually hadn't even considered using Warp to intercept the one Thief that managed to escape - I tend to be stingy with Warp uses to the point I forget it's an option half the time.

It is sad that Norne's Strength is falling behind this much - it's getting close to two points behind her average at this point. I'd really like for her to get at least one more point of Strength soon - that way once she promotes the Strength boost from that will allow her to use all bows without weight penalties.

The couple that slays together stays together. ;^)

Yeah, I really didn't want to have to send more characters to their deaths than necessary.

Interesting point about the Gaiden chapters not scaling properly on higher difficulties. And yeah, I haven't played any of them before myself.

And good points about Caeda re: the Seraph Robe, though she's doing a bit better on bulk than average in this run and she'll probably be spending some time as a Paladin once she promotes and that might keep her a bit closer to the main force than as a flyer.

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Part 8 - Chapter 6x

Happy day after Christmas to all who celebrate. This time I'll be taking on the rarely seen chapter 6x.

Spoiler

I know I usually don't include the story bits in this Let's Play, but I figured I would for this chapter since it's rarely seen. The opening segment sets up the situation we'll be facing. To be honest, the set up seems like something that it would make more sense to do if our army was doing well, not when almost half of it is dead.

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Before starting the chapter I do some inventory management - putting the Master Key and Seraph Robe we picked up last chapter into the Convoy, and selling the Bullion (S) that Rickard got out of a chest. I also have Norne grab an extra Steel Bow out of the Convoy since she has less than half of her first one remaining.

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The deployment limit is only 12 this time, so since there aren't any chests to open on this map I'm not taking Julian or Rickard. I also leave Merric and Wendell behind - they have the lowest defense and I should have enough meat shields without them.

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My initial troop placement - nothing too special about it.

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I think I'm good on forged weapons for the moment, and I'm not running low on anything I could buy from the Armory, so I get right to it. And we immediately get a short event letting us know that there's a recruit in the village on this map.

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Draug positions himself to lure in the nearest Pirate, and the rest of my troops set themselves up around him.

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The Pirate doesn't even manage to hit Draug on Enemy Phase. A couple of other enemies are moving, but it looks like most of them will be waiting for us to come into their range.

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At the start of Player Phase, I realize that Caeda's Iron Lance is going to run out soon and I didn't grab her another one. Oops. I have Cain grab another one from the Convoy and pass it over to Caeda.

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I have Norne take out the Pirate that Draug lured over, though using the Yggdra Bow is the only way she has enough damage to do it unfortunately. Norne gets another level up from the kill, and gets a rare Defense gain but still no Strength or Speed.

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Caeda heads west to eliminate a Mercenary - she'll be in range of another Mercenary and a Pirate, but she should do fine against them.

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The main group presses forward a bit - I have Marth switch to an Iron Sword just in case one of the Pirates decides to suicide onto him.

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During Enemy Phase, both of the Pirates near the main group go after Hardin, while Caeda dodges the Pirate that attacks her and kills him for a very defensive level up. She also easily dodges and kills the Armorslayer Mercenary that follows afterwards.

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Marth takes care of the Hand Axe Pirate by deciding to crit to save Iron Sword uses.

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I decide to let Norne take two turns to kill the other Pirate to save Yggdra Bow uses.

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Caeda removes the Pirate closest to her, but takes a bit of damage in the process.

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That does clear most of the path to the village, though, so I start sending troops towards it.

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The last Pirate takes another chunk out of Hardin on Enemy Phase.

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But Norne doesn't waste any time in killing him off.

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Lena takes a moment to heal up Hardin most of the way.

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Everyone else heads out in the village's direction.

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On Enemy Phase, a Mage moves onto the village entrance, probably prompted by our army getting closer to it. I have Caeda park herself at the edge of the Mage's range and equip a Javelin.

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Marth moves up to support her, and everyone else arranges themselves around them, with Draug, Norne, and Lena falling behind a bit.

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The Mage is successfully baited in, and doesn't even manage to hit her before almost being one shot by her.

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Caeda moves forward one space to bait in a nearby Mercenary. I have her switch to her almost broken Iron Lance - that will keep her from killing him, but Norne should be able to get close enough for the kill next turn.

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I shuffle my troops around a little, and have Norne and Lena move closer to the action.

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Caeda continues her dodging streak when the Mercenary attacks, and takes a decent chunk out of him with the last use of her Iron Lance.

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Norne isn't fast enough to double him, and he's tanky enough that she doesn't quite kill him with anything but the Yggdra Bow.

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Two Pirates still guard the village, one carrying a Hand Axe and one carrying a Steel Axe. I decide to have Marth move as close as possible to the village anyway - the Steel Axe Pirate will probably suicide on him, but the Hand Axe one will probably live and make a nice target for Athena once she's recruited next turn.

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I do make sure the rest of the army is as close as possible in case their help is needed next turn.

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Neither Pirate hits Marth on Enemy Phase, and he handily kills the Steel Axe Pirate.

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Marth visits the village first thing on Player Phase, and after a slightly confused conversation Athena joins our ranks.

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I have her take on the Hand Axe Pirate as her first act as part of my army and she can one round him, if only just. She is a few levels lower than my main attackers are, though. (And I missed getting a screenshot of this.)

Norne moves to where she can bait in an Archer and switches to her Iron Bow - she won't kill on Enemy Phase unless she crits, but she should be able to finish the job with a Steel Bow next turn.

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Lena moves forward and heals Caeda.

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Everyone else moves as close to the next set of enemies as they can.

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The Archer moves in and exchanges arrows with Norne on Enemy Phase, all of them hitting their marks.

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Norne then moves around to finish him with the Steel Bow while still moving closer to the next group of enemies.

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The other troops arrange themselves around the edges of the enemies' range, though Draug can't quite position himself to start baiting them in this turn.

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Next turn, Draug steps just into range of the enemies and Marth moves beside him.

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Norne rejoins the main group and Lena moves to heal her for some more experience.

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And I should've checked more carefully what he'd be in range of - the Archer I knew could reach him did some minor damage, but he also pulled in an Armorslayer Mercenary that dropped him to 2 HP. Ouch.

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Athena takes out the Archer without any trouble.

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Draug moves over to where Lena can start healing him.

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I build a sturdy wall around the Armoryslayer Mercenary.

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Norne takes a decent chunk out of the Mercenary with her Steel Bow - it would've been a kill if she could double with it. The Yggdra Bow would've been able to double and kill him, but we're not in that much of a hurry to get rid of this guy now that Draug is safe from him.

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Lena heals Draug for about half of his health, and gets a level that sucks other than the HP gain.

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The rest of the troops move a little closer.

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The Armorslayer Mercenary, deprived of his previous target, goes after Cain on Enemy Phase.

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I let Athena finish the Mercenary off, since she's my lowest level attacker right now.

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Lena moves forward a little while remaining in range to heal Draug.

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The next enemy that needs to be baited in is a Mage, so I let Caeda - who's still equipped with a Javelin - be the one to reel him in.

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Marth and Norne take up positions next to Caeda, and everyone else moves in close.

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Caeda takes a small hit from the Mage on Enemy Phase but easily kills him in retaliation.

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Draug can't quite bait in the two remaining Archers that are flanking the boss, so this turn is spent shifting the army forward a little, and having Lena heal Cain for experience.

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Next turn, Norne positions herself to bait one of the Archers - he's carrying a Steel Bow, so she should be able to double him while weilding one herself.

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Draug puts himself on the conveniently located Fort to bait in the other Archer, and Athena follows just behind him.

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Marth takes the opportunity to place himself next to Athena so he can pull a fresh Steel Sword and Killing Edge out of the Convoy and pass them over to her.

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Lena moves to where she can heal Caeda's minor damage for experience.

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Caeda also moves forward a little, but with so few enemies left I decide to leave everyone else where they are.

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Norne dodges the Archer she baited in and gets an overkill crit on her second shot, while the other Archer does no damage to Draug.

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Athena takes care of the remaining Archer, positioning herself in easy reach of the boss in the process.

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I have Norne move in on the other side in case Athena needs help with one rounding the boss.

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Marth also moves forward so he'll be in position to quickly seize once the boss goes down.

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Lena squeezes a little more healing experience out of the chapter by healing Hardin up to full.

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Unfortunately, Norne can't do enough damage to let Athena one round the boss without resorting to the Yggdra Bow. Marth, on the other hand, doesn't do quite enough damage to kill the boss with his Iron Sword unless he crits. And he dodges, so he doesn't even take any damage from the boss while weakening him.

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Athena finishes the boss off without much trouble, and gets her first level up, which turns out okay.

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Marth seizes on the next turn, receiving much gratitude from the villagers we rescued. And Athena lets us know that she will be staying with our army, for which I am very grateful.

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Next time I'll be taking on chapter 7, where the game teases me with Minerva and the Whitewings but doesn't let me recruit any of them into my army yet.

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20 hours ago, CelestialContrail said:

My initial troop placement - nothing too special about it.

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I mean it is the first map you have under-deployed into, which is kinda notable.

 

21 hours ago, CelestialContrail said:

I have Norne take out the Pirate that Draug lured over, though using the Yggdra Bow is the only way she has enough damage to do it unfortunately. Norne gets another level up from the kill, and gets a rare Defense gain but still no Strength or Speed.

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Defense is nice, but at this rate, she is going to be relying on forges as a crutch for that low strength of hers.

 

21 hours ago, CelestialContrail said:

 

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This is just the chapter of defense levelups it seems.

 

22 hours ago, CelestialContrail said:

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It amuses me more than it should to see Marth called a manchild.

 

22 hours ago, CelestialContrail said:

 

And I should've checked more carefully what he'd be in range of - the Archer I knew could reach him did some minor damage, but he also pulled in an Armorslayer Mercenary that dropped him to 2 HP. Ouch.

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Never punished, but also a spooky little inattentive moment, as it seems you got into the habit of just using him as an impenetrable lure for the enemies, without checking what damage they would actually do to him. A reminder that no matter how invulnerable Draug seems, he is still mortal.

 

22 hours ago, CelestialContrail said:

 

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Ouch, I guess this is the first bad level she has gotten so far, so it could be much worse.

 

On 12/26/2022 at 5:42 PM, CelestialContrail said:

 

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That is the most Myrmidon level she could get...

 

On 12/26/2022 at 5:42 PM, CelestialContrail said:

Next time I'll be taking on chapter 7, where the game teases me with Minerva and the Whitewings but doesn't let me recruit any of them into my army yet.

It is such a cruel tease, especially with how few women this game gives you. Honestly it is kinda sad that they have only given you 4 so far, and half of those you had to go way out or your way to get.

 

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4 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

I mean it is the first map you have under-deployed into, which is kinda notable.

Defense is nice, but at this rate, she is going to be relying on forges as a crutch for that low strength of hers.

This is just the chapter of defense levelups it seems.

It amuses me more than it should to see Marth called a manchild.

Never punished, but also a spooky little inattentive moment, as it seems you got into the habit of just using him as an impenetrable lure for the enemies, without checking what damage they would actually do to him. A reminder that no matter how invulnerable Draug seems, he is still mortal.

Ouch, I guess this is the first bad level she has gotten so far, so it could be much worse.

That is the most Myrmidon level she could get...

It is such a cruel tease, especially with how few women this game gives you. Honestly it is kinda sad that they have only given you 4 so far, and half of those you had to go way out or your way to get.

True, though for earlier maps part of the reason for going for full deployment was to have units I could kill off without endangering my main forces, which is no longer a concern.

Yeah, a very defense focused chapter for level ups (and Athena's level up was indeed a very Myrmidon level).

And you're right about me falling into that habit, it's something I need to be more careful about in the future.

Playing Shadow Dragon this way does highlight its gender balance (or lack thereof). Women aren't non-existent, but there's definitely less of them than the men, and they're kind of backloaded - you get 8 in chapter 10 through 19 but only 4 at most from the Prologue through chapter 9.

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Part 9 - Chapter 7

Another update this week. As I mentioned before, I have some extra free time between Christmas and New Year's.

Spoiler

The first thing I do is some inventory management. I grab the swords I had Marth put in the Convoy last chapter so he could trade stuff to Athena back out, and I have Caeda pick up a Silver Lance and Athena grab our Armorslayer.

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I buy another Heal staff for Lena as well, since I'm burning through them pretty quickly for the sake of getting her levels.

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And speaking of that Armorslayer, I go ahead and forge it up a bit. As for the name, sometimes I think I'm funny. ;^)

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As for the units I'm taking with me, since there aren't any chests to grab and just one door to open that has a convenient key carrier to help with, I'm going to leave Julian and Rickard behind again, as well as Wendell and Merric for similar reasons as last time.

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My initial troop formation. The most important thing here is having Norne in position to start taking out the Archers to the south that are guarding the village.

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Upon starting the map, the first thing I do is have Norne start taking care of our Archer problem. It takes three shots from her Steel Bow to down either of them, she doubles both of them, one has a Steel Bow that does 5 damage to her and the other has a Longbow that does 6 damage to her. My plan is for her to attack the Steel Bow Archer on Player Phase so he'll die when he attacks her on Enemy Phase. The Longbow Archer should also attack her on Enemy Phase and take enough damage that she'll be able to kill him on Player Phase without taking another shot from him. So in total she'll at most be taking two hits from the Steel Bow Archer and one hit from the Longbow Archer, leaving her at 7 HP. A bit painful but a sound plan nonetheless. The first part of the plan goes off without a hitch.

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With the rest of my troops I start making a defensive wall - the flying units will be charging us and while Minerva and the Whitewings won't actually attack us, the generics will.

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On Enemy Phase the Steel Bow Archer suicides on Norne as planned, getting her another level - not many stats this time but I can't complain about her getting more Strength (!) and Speed. Annoyingly, the Longbow Archer attacked from far enough away that Norne couldn't retaliate, but she dodged the attack at least.

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And the enemy fliers are charging fast enough that I need to have her retreat behind our defensive wall so she won't get surrounded and killed on Enemy Phase. That Longbow Archer will just have to wait.

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I also have Caeda switch to a harder hitting weapon - the Dracoknight should come after either her or Marth on Enemy Phase since they have equal defense and they're both in range, and I want her to do serious damage to it if it does decide to go after her.

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And Lena heals Norne's wounds for experience.

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On Enemy Phase the Dracoknight goes for Draug, probably because even though he has higher Defense the Dracoknight can double him.

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Even with the Strength increase she just got, it takes the Yggdra Bow for her to one shot the Dracoknight - they are pretty tanky, though. She should be good to use weaker bows for the Pegasus Knights that are following behind him. And she gets good experience from killing him.

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Those Pegasus Knights wouldn't be worth using Caeda's Silver Lance on, but they have softer targets they should go for so I don't feel the need to switch her weapon again. On Enemy Phase, the Pegasus Knights do minor damage to Matthis and Cain, while the Whitewings gather around Minerva who's stopped close to us.

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Norne needs a Steel Bow to one shot the tankier of the two Pegasus Knights that are bothering us.

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Lena moves to where she can heal Draug.

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And Caeda takes out the Thief that has a Door Key and was heading towards the village. She's a little full, though, so she sends her Vulnerary to the Convoy for now.

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The last Pegasus Knight does a bit more damage to Matthis on Enemy Phase.

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And Norne's fast enough to double her with an Iron Bow, not that she needs to to kill her.

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Now that the actually dangerous fliers have been dealt with, I have Caeda open the door that leads to the village.

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There's still the Longbow Archer that needs to be dealt with, particularly since Caeda's in his range now. So I send in Athena, who could use the experience the most. She can't quite kill with an Iron Sword so she takes him down with her Steel Sword.

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Marth needs to be the one to visit the village, so I send him towards it as well.

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With so few active combat units, I'll be waiting to send anyone down the western side of the map until I can have Marth and Athena regroup with the main force. I do have Lena heal up Cain for experience, getting her next level in the process which turns out okay - no Magic or Speed, but HP and Skill isn't bad.

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On Enemy Phase, Athena gets attacked by two Mercenaries, of which she doubles and kills the first but not the second.

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At the beginning of Player Phase, I have Athena finish the Mercenary off with an Iron Sword.

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Marth visits the village and recruits Bantu, who will be vital to getting Tiki later.

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Caeda moves south as well - I'm planning to have her camp one of the reinforcement forts on this map.

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Bantu heads north to join our main army.

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Norne gets a head start on heading towards the other side of the map.

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I have Lena heal her brother for some more experience.

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Gordin, Ogma, and Draug also start heading westwards.

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tIoFDIw.png

On Enemy Phase, Minerva and the Whitewings leave, rendering the map somewhat deceptively lacking in enemies. At this point, I start moving my army towards the line that triggers reinforcements. I'll skip most of the maneuvering, though I will show that Lena healed Athena during all this. I also had Caeda grab a Vulnerary from the Convoy.

QqesGSb.png nyOItfM.png

npuBiJh.png

Once I have everything set up, I send Caeda and Matthis south to occupy two of the Forts the reinforcements will come out of, hopefully reducing them to a manageable number.

fbzbY99.png S7xNduZ.png

Then the rest of my forces start setting up for the arrival of the reinforcements. (Bantu was left safely behind.)

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Once the reinforcements show up on Enemy Phase, I do a carefully planned swap - Caeda rejoins the main force, Matthis covers the Fort Caeda was on, and Abel occupies the Fort that Matthis was holding. (The mountainous terrain prevented any of the Cavaliers from taking the western Fort in one turn.)

8tNIbz5.png NLkANCK.png

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Athena moves to where she'll be attacked by one of the reinforcements and equips a Steel Sword for some extra oomph.

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I also take advantage of the Fort giving Abel extra defense to bait the other reinforcement (who has a Javelin) into attacking Norne, who I have equip her Steel Bow - the reinforcements are weak enough to be weighed down by Javelins, leaving her fast enough to double them even when using Steel.

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Draug moves over to solidify our wall, and Lena moves closer to be ready to heal as necessary.

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The Javelin Cavalier misses Norne, though her retaliation doesn't quite kill him. And Athena crits to kill the other Cavalier in one hit.

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Norne finishes the job on Player Phase and gets another level - this time getting Strength and Defense! :^)

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I move Hardin closer to the eastern Fort, in case there's a break in the reinforcements I'll be able to use to close it up, though I make sure he's not blocking the Cavalier in so he'll still go after Athena on Enemy Phase. I leave everyone else in the same postion as last turn, since it worked out so well then.

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But because of Norne's Defense increase, the Javelin Cavalier goes aften Abel instead, and the other Cavalier is a little tankier this time and survives Athena's attacks. And as another annoyance, the Curate moved and is blocking Hardin from reaching the eastern Fort.

eCo3Ngn.png 8HZx6r7.png

I move Abel out of the way so that Norne can take over the Fort and kill the Javelin Cavalier. Doing that in one round requires using the Yggdra Bow even after her Strength increases, but I should be able to switch her back to a Steel Bow for the next set of reinforcements.

qCgvAk7.png LpNU03I.png

Hardin moves out of the way so Caeda can kill the Curate without getting into range of the Knights next to the boss. She gets a mediocre level from the kill - though to be fair, her Speed is capped and she's doing very well in general.

QebH7Pj.png nRl9ysB.png

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Athena switches to an Iron Sword to be thrifty when killing the other Cavalier, and gets a somewhat meh level in the process.

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I have Lena take advantage of the moment of safety to heal Athena's wounds.

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Enemy Phase brings the start of another set of reinforcements. I have Abel move further out of the way to make sure the Javelin Cavalier goes after Norne, and Caeda rejoins the main group.

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Norne and Athena swap back to their Steel weapons and brace for impact.

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Though I forgot that by moving Norne onto the Fort, the Javelin Cavalier would be able to melee her. Because of that, the Javelin Cavalier ends Enemy Phase unharmed, and Athena didn't quite kill her Cavalier, either.

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I have Norne back up a space and damage the Javelin Cavalier with her Steel Bow.

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Then Caeda occupies the Fort and finishes him off.

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And Athena deals with the Cavalier that survived her previous attacks with 1 HP.

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The next Enemy Phase goes better - the Javelin Cavalier attacks Norne like I wanted him to, although Athena's opponent still survives with 1 HP.

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Norne and Athena remove their respective opponents from the equation - Athena swapping to her Iron Sword to save Steel Sword uses.

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I have Caeda move to block one of the two remaining Forts and, since she'll be in range of the Javelin-wielding Knights, I have her equip her own Javelin, though she probably won't end up needing it.

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Hardin takes the other Fort, and Abel moves closer so he can take Caeda's place next turn.

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Marth moves south so he can kill off one of the Knights, and gets a pretty bad level from doing so.

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And Lena heals up Athena again for more experience.

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The remaining Knight threw a Javelin at Marth, doing a bit more damage to him. ...And I forgot to put anyone on the Fort Caeda had been on, so a reinforcement spawned there. *facepalm*

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I have Caeda start fixing my mistake by using her Iron Lance to weaken him, and then Norne finished him off.

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Afterwards, Athena uses Can Opener for the first time to remove the remaining Knight from the picture.

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Abel can't quite reach the Fort that Caeda left this turn, so Marth takes up Fort sitting for a brief time, while Draug plugs up the other Fort that I left open earlier.

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Lena heads south incase her healing services are needed before the end of the map.

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I'd like Athena to get the boss kill experience, but her odds of killing him in one round aren't great and she can't survive two hits from him. So it's time to shuffle a couple of potential helpers closer - namely Marth and Caeda.

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Abel takes up Fort guarding duty, and Lena heals Caeda's minor damage for experience.

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Next turn, I evaluate my options and decide to have Caeda use her Silver Lance to weaken him enough for Athena to have a good chance of getting the kill with her Armorslayer.

FTEN8Qh.png

That part of my gambit went well - Caeda dodged the boss's attack. Athena just needs to hit one of two attacks with a 66% chance to hit to kill him. Athena misses the first strike, eats the boss's attack, but hits on the second strike. Unfortunately, that seems to have used up all her luck, because the level she gets from killing him is pretty bad.

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I let Lena get some last experience by healing Athena, and she gets a somewhat better level than Athena did, although I wish she'd start getting Magic again.

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With everything taken care of, I have Marth seize to end the chapter.

Next time I take on chapter 8, where we get to buy an extra Rapier and Wing Spear. And also fight some guys I guess.

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15 hours ago, CelestialContrail said:

 

And speaking of that Armorslayer, I go ahead and forge it up a bit. As for the name, sometimes I think I'm funny. ;^)

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Now that is a fun Armorslayer name 😛

 

16 hours ago, CelestialContrail said:

 

Upon starting the map, the first thing I do is have Norne start taking care of our Archer problem. It takes three shots from her Steel Bow to down either of them, she doubles both of them, one has a Steel Bow that does 5 damage to her and the other has a Longbow that does 6 damage to her. My plan is for her to attack the Steel Bow Archer on Player Phase so he'll die when he attacks her on Enemy Phase. The Longbow Archer should also attack her on Enemy Phase and take enough damage that she'll be able to kill him on Player Phase without taking another shot from him. So in total she'll at most be taking two hits from the Steel Bow Archer and one hit from the Longbow Archer, leaving her at 7 HP. A bit painful but a sound plan nonetheless. The first part of the plan goes off without a hitch.

A Longbow so early...unfortunately the enemy phase plan for it isn't going to work thanks to 3 range. You could go for attacking the longbow on the first 2 player phases, and kill the Steel Bow over both enemy phases, but it will leave her with 1 HP by the end of it, although I am guessing the consequences of Longbow having 2-3 range was missed in the planning stages of things.

 

16 hours ago, CelestialContrail said:

 

On Enemy Phase the Steel Bow Archer suicides on Norne as planned, getting her another level - not many stats this time but I can't complain about her getting more Strength (!) and Speed. Annoyingly, the Longbow Archer attacked from far enough away that Norne couldn't retaliate, but she dodged the attack at least.

Rau6Zlw.png

Ohhh, is this the start of a Norne redemption arc

 

16 hours ago, CelestialContrail said:

On Enemy Phase the Dracoknight goes for Draug, probably because even though he has higher Defense the Dracoknight can double him.

Z6OMTri.png

Interesting to note that his low speed is helping him drawing more aggro (by taking more damage...)

 

16 hours ago, CelestialContrail said:

 

Even with the Strength increase she just got, it takes the Yggdra Bow for her to one shot the Dracoknight - they are pretty tanky, though. She should be good to use weaker bows for the Pegasus Knights that are following behind him. And she gets good experience from killing him.

It is a tanky promoted unit so its not all that surprising...also the power of forged effective weapons shines through again here.

 

16 hours ago, CelestialContrail said:

Norne needs a Steel Bow to one shot the tankier of the two Pegasus Knights that are bothering us.

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And she doesn't need the help with its unpromoted counterparts at least.

 

16 hours ago, CelestialContrail said:

Marth needs to be the one to visit the village, so I send him towards it as well.

It is kinda annoying that only Marth can visit villages in this game.

 

16 hours ago, CelestialContrail said:

With so few active combat units, I'll be waiting to send anyone down the western side of the map until I can have Marth and Athena regroup with the main force. I do have Lena heal up Cain for experience, getting her next level in the process which turns out okay - no Magic or Speed, but HP and Skill isn't bad.

To be fair, even when you have a full fighting team the reinforcements down there are dangerous enough that you probably want to prepare for them just outside the reinforcement line. Also blocking those reinforcements is almost always a good idea on this map, unless you are desperate to squeeze exp out of it for some reason.

 

On 12/28/2022 at 12:15 PM, CelestialContrail said:

 

Once I have everything set up, I send Caeda and Matthis south to occupy two of the Forts the reinforcements will come out of, hopefully reducing them to a manageable number.

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Shame Caeda needed to be one of the blockers, but you needed flight to block, and only ladies have flight before promotion (and poor Jagen died in the prologue, so no Dracoknight reclassing to cheese flight onto one of the boys), so it was kinda necessary to do this non-combat role with one of your limited combatants. At least she doesn't have to stay there all that long.

 

On 12/28/2022 at 12:15 PM, CelestialContrail said:

I also take advantage of the Fort giving Abel extra defense to bait the other reinforcement (who has a Javelin) into attacking Norne, who I have equip her Steel Bow - the reinforcements are weak enough to be weighed down by Javelins, leaving her fast enough to double them even when using Steel.

V8FLmpG.png kMzMa7U.png

Now that is a crafty, and clever bit of AI control there, taking advantage of terrain like that.

 

On 12/28/2022 at 12:15 PM, CelestialContrail said:

Norne finishes the job on Player Phase and gets another level - this time getting Strength and Defense! :^)

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ITS HAPPENING, NORNE REDEMPTION ARC

 

On 12/28/2022 at 12:15 PM, CelestialContrail said:

 

But because of Norne's Defense increase, the Javelin Cavalier goes aften Abel instead, and the other Cavalier is a little tankier this time and survives Athena's attacks. And as another annoyance, the Curate moved and is blocking Hardin from reaching the eastern Fort.

eCo3Ngn.png 8HZx6r7.png

Such a funny little consequence of Norne growing too well for once.

 

On 12/28/2022 at 12:15 PM, CelestialContrail said:

Athena switches to an Iron Sword to be thrifty when killing the other Cavalier, and gets a somewhat meh level in the process.

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Careful there Athena, don't be taking on the mantle of old Norne as she finally started to caste the curse off of her.

 

On 12/28/2022 at 12:15 PM, CelestialContrail said:

Though I forgot that by moving Norne onto the Fort, the Javelin Cavalier would be able to melee her. Because of that, the Javelin Cavalier ends Enemy Phase unharmed, and Athena didn't quite kill her Cavalier, either.

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Sounds like you galaxy brained yourself into this little goof. Reminds me of the last couple times I played chess, making moves I thought were so clever, but missing the obvious because of it.

 

On 12/28/2022 at 12:15 PM, CelestialContrail said:

 

The next Enemy Phase goes better - the Javelin Cavalier attacks Norne like I wanted him to, although Athena's opponent still survives with 1 HP.

ZxUm5cY.png FU4azql.png

Athena is really suffering from not getting any strength with all these 1 HP survival on enemies.

 

On 12/28/2022 at 12:15 PM, CelestialContrail said:

 

The remaining Knight threw a Javelin at Marth, doing a bit more damage to him. ...And I forgot to put anyone on the Fort Caeda had been on, so a reinforcement spawned there. *facepalm*

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Ouch, this makes me think you needed a little break, either for sleep (I often joke that sleepiness is one of the big killers in ironman runs), to eat more tasty brain fuel, or just collect some frazzled thoughts back together.

 

On 12/28/2022 at 12:15 PM, CelestialContrail said:

 

Next turn, I evaluate my options and decide to have Caeda use her Silver Lance to weaken him enough for Athena to have a good chance of getting the kill with her Armorslayer.

FTEN8Qh.png

Its kinda impressive how tanky he is when you aren't using effective weapons, just 6 damage from a Silver Weapon...

 

On 12/28/2022 at 12:15 PM, CelestialContrail said:

 

That part of my gambit went well - Caeda dodged the boss's attack. Athena just needs to hit one of two attacks with a 66% chance to hit to kill him. Athena misses the first strike, eats the boss's attack, but hits on the second strike. Unfortunately, that seems to have used up all her luck, because the level she gets from killing him is pretty bad.

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Gbn5F6f.png

Harmein got canned by the Can Opener...sorry that was a really bad joke.

 

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