FE4: "Create me a hack" playlog

[Tables]

If you've seen the Create me a hack thread you'll know what this is about. Basically, take a few things in FE4, throw then into a blender, and play the result.

I plan to be giving castle by castle updates on what's going on as I play, as well as comments on the difficulty and stuff. I won't be making videos or anything like that, but I'll post character stats at the end of each chapter.

Here's the list of characters, and what they now have:

Sigurd: {Baldo}, Prayer

Noish: Pursuit, Continue

Alec: Continue, Charge

Ardan: Pursuit

Cuan: {Noba}, Critical

Ethlin: {Odo}, Nihil

Fin: Pursuit, Continue

Lex: {Odo}, Charge, Charisma

Azel: {Baldo}, Charge

Midir: Pursuit, Continue

Aideen: {Fala}

Dew: Steal, Pursuit, Meteor

Aira: {Neir}, Pursuit, Critical, Luna

Diedre: {Narga, Ulir}, Pursuit

Jamka: Pursuit, Prayer, Nihil

Holyn: {Loputosu}, Pursuit, Charge

Lachesis: {Blagi}, Elite

Levin: {Holsety}, Wrath, Pursuit

Sylvia: {Hezul}, Dance, Bargain, Sol

Fury: Ambush

Beowulf: Ambush, Critical

Briggid: {Ulir}, Pursuit

Claude: {Blaggi}

Tiltyu: {Tordo}, Nihil

And the Gen 2's classes and promotions:

Celice: Jr Lord > Lord Knight

Julia: Shaman > Sage

Leaf: Free Knight > Forest Knight

Altenna: Pegasus Knight > Falcoknight

Lakche: Swordfighter > Master Knight

Skasaher: Axe Armour > Baron

Lana: Troubadour > Falcoknight

Lester: Fire Mage > Magefighter

Nanna: Thief > Magefighter

Delmud: Arch Knight > Bow Knight

Leen: Dancer

Corple: Wind Mage > Mage Knight

Fee: Dracoknight > Dragonmaster

Sety: High Priest

Faval: Bow Armour > Warrior

Patty: Swordfighter > Forest

Tinny: Thunder Mage > Sage

Arthur: Swordfighter > Swordmaster

So the first order of business is for me to decide on my pairings. Which is, of course, a whole new ballgame, as all kinds of crazy stuff has changed. Feel free to make suggestions about who to pair and why, but I'll be doing an analysis myself too.

For those who are interested, here's the patch: FE4_CreateMeAHack.zip

And this post contains the update (needed from chapter 7 onwards, changes adult Fin's skills from Prayer to Continue)

I make no guarantee that everything is correct .

Pairings chosen:

Aideen x Noish

Aira x Lex

Lachesis x Midir

Sylvia x Jamka

Fury x Levin

Briggid x Alec

Tiltyu x Dew

I've moved all the initial pairings planning to my next post. It was irritating me being here.

Edited August 31, 2010 by I Eat Tables

[AstraLunaSol]

Oh God, I'm sure I'm gonna loooove reading this.

Just hope the game doesn't glitch on you.

[Psych]

My suggestions, and probably what I'm gonna do once I download:

Holyn x Sylvia

Lachesis x Jamka ?

Tiltyu x Dew, especially for the Wind Sword

Ayra x Lex, you can finally pass down axes.

Fury x Levin

Briggid x Beowulf

Aideen x Claude, too bad Rana can't get the Valkyrie staff though..

[riariadne]

BriggidXDew still is the way to go. I am indifferent to and will support any other pairing you decide on as long as you do this. Because Faval needs to be awesome.

[Ansem]

Noish is surprisingly good in this Hack. Totally pairing him with Lachesis. Meanwhile Sigurd cant double.

Edited July 26, 2010 by Solf J. Kimblee

[Tables]

5/7 pairings considered, just Briggid and Tiltyu left (who fortunately are NOT going to be all naming Levin as their best husband... hopefully). It's looking like Noish, Midir and possibly even Fin are going to be the top dads.

Edit: Heh, no doubling Sigurd is going to get annoying. I expected Noish to be good, Fin and Midir should be too - at least, Fin will be come chapter 2 when there's enemies not using axes ¬_¬. And Briggid x Dew... can't see it happening. Does nothing much for Faval, although it makes a decent Patty, maybe.

Initial pairings planning:

I'm not considering actual fathers here, just, what each pair of siblings wants from their dad. Screw it, yes I am.

Aideen: {Fala}

Lana: Troubadour > Falcoknight

Lester: Fire Mage > Magefighter

In terms of inheritance, this pairing doesn't really want for anything. Aideen passes down many of her staves to Lana, but bear in mind Lana is stuck with only C rank staves unless I pair Aideen with Claude, so that means, Live/Relive/Return only. As for Lester, all he can take is Elfire for extra damage.

What these kids really want is skills. Aideen has no skills, and while they both get Continue after promotion, Lester really wants something to help his attack. Pursuit might not activate as often as he'd want, with his ~9 SPD base and -12 AS tomes, but it would obviously still be good. Asides from that, anything to help would be appreciated - Charge, Prayer, Critical, Wrath etc.

Conclusion: Look for a dad with a few good combat skills - Elfire inheritance is a plus. That's looking like... Levin is a seriously nice dad here, basically perfect for both. But he might have a better option, so Noish, Midir, Beowulf and Jamka all look acceptable (Jamka has the double advantage of being able to trade a Hero Bow over to Lachesis' partner)

Aira: {Neir}, Pursuit, Critical, Luna

Lakche: Swordfighter > Master Knight

Skasaher: Axe Armour > Baron

Welcome to broken land. Population: ...just one, actually, since Skasaher isn't quite so hot anymore. Still, he can inherit axes - which is unquestionably a draw for Gen 1 axe users. The kids could do with a little extra strength and speed, since Aira isn't exactly too hot in those.

Skills-wise, Lakche has three awesome skills, plus Neir blood, plus item inheritance, but Skasaher only has Critical. Pursuit won't matter much for him with his incredible SPD and -12 AS weapon (yeah, like he's NOT getting the Hero axe). So, again, any kind of useful, universal skills would be good, except Continue, so Charge, Charisma, and the like.

Conclusion: Any dad who's name starts with L- and ends in -ex should be fine (seriously, there's no competition - early Charisma + Hero and Silver axes (one goes to Johan/Johalva))

Lachesis: {Blagi}, Elite

Nanna: Thief > Magefighter

Delmud: Arch Knight > Bow Knight

Hm, now we have interesting pairings. Lachesis gets access to better staves and swords... which she then can't pass down. The Earth and Prayer swords go down, at least. Delmud is now basically Lester, but with B bows, and he can't get the Hero bow from a nice pairing. Poop. He still desperately wants the Killer Bow though, as well as a good STR growth, which Lachesis fails to give.

Elite is a very nice skill and goes well with everything, which is helpful. But the kids lack any combat skills, so pursuit is basically a must, along with anything else to help their attacking.

Conclusion: Midir seems to fit the bill here perfectly, with Pursuit, Continue, good growths (30% STR, 40% SPD, 30% DEF). Noish does equally well but fails to pass down bows.

Sylvia: {Hezul}, Dance, Bargain, Sol

Leen: Dancer

Corple: Wind Mage > Mage Knight

Hmm... Hezul is really rather worthless to these two, although I guess it gives Corple the option of using swords (vaguely) well after promotion. Similarly, Sol gets wasted, since Corple won't even inherit it, and Bargain... may be useful. Leen doesn't really care about her dad, and Corple only really cares for inheritance and skills - he wants to be able to hit hard and easily so he can catch up and be useful even at level 1, so an Elwind would help him lots, and Holsety would help him even more.

The skills they want are probably the same as everyone's - decent combat skills like Pursuit and the like. Corple's good speed means Continue wouldn't go amiss, and neither would Charge, and with his likely frailty, he'd appreciate wrath as well.

Conclusion: Levin is dad #1 here, just like with Aideen. With Levin as his dad, he gets Holsety right from the start, along with Pursuit and Wrath, just in case something survives, but of course then Holsety is missing for over half of Gen 2. Excluding Levin, his best bets might be Midir and Noish, like so many others, or perhaps Jamka for prayer.

Fury: Ambush

Fee: Dracoknight > Dragonmaster

Sety: High Priest

Ugh, Sety, what happened to you :(? Sety would like to inherit some nice Staves as a prime goal, while Fee wants some growth boosts and, importantly, some skills. Sety could use some magic holy blood to use something better than basic tomes, but asides from Levin, that's all locked up on females ¬_¬.

Skillswise, the two would love Pursuit. Fee gets it at promotion, which might be too late, but would also like Nihil and any skills to augment her high STR - critical and maybe charge. Sety wants pursuit as well, and also skills like Charisma and prayer that would help him survive, unless he can get his hands on Holsety.

Conclusion: For the third time, Levin wins by a landslide. Sety can't use anything above C rank tomes otherwise, while Fee gets Wrath and pursuit - which combined with Ambush and good STR, make a deadly combination. Other good dads would be, well, whaddya know, Noish, Midir, maybe Alec and Beowulf, and it's a possibility for Claude, for entirely different reasons (Sety stops being a good attacker, and Fee can't do much until promotion, but Sety becomes a useful healer, which as far as I've seen, I'm lacking)

Briggid: {Ulir}, Pursuit

Faval: Bow Armour > Warrior

Patty: Swordfighter > Forest

With Briggid's awesome growths, there's very little that the children want statwise, but Patty does want a sword using dad to pass some stuff down - she can fight reasonably well regardless of anything else after that. Faval is the weird class, a high DEF class that rarely gets attacked, but he does good damage and has a +10 SPD bow, so he kinda wants some good skills.

Skillswise, Faval would love pursuit, but really any other attack skills work for him - like always, that means continue, charge, critical and wrath. Patty would like all of those, and you can add sword skills to the list.

Conclusion: Noish and Midir give good skills for Faval, but they're a little redundant on Patty. Dew gives something very useful to both as well as excellent growths, Alec gives nice skills to both too, and Beowulf's skills are also useful but no pursuit really hurts Faval. So really, it's Alec, Dew, Noish or Midir.

Tiltyu: {Tordo}, Nihil

Tinny: Thunder Mage > Sage

Arthur: Swordfighter > Swordmaster

Hehe, two awesome units after promotion, but stuck with likely bad stats from inheritance (especially Tinny) and a lack of decent skills. Both want for the same thing: Good skills.

Both have continue after promotion, and Arthur has pursuit, so we might even see something other than Noish and Midir being recommended here ¬_¬. In fact, skills like Critical, swordskills for Arthur, Charge and Prayer seem like the most useful options, with pursuit for Tinny also being nice.

Conclusion: Dew gives each kid what they need to be decent, Beowulf offers other useful skills, and Noish/Midir, as always, give other useful stuff, but less so this time.

Edited August 2, 2010 by I Eat Tables

[Thor Odinson]

Since Barons could use magic, technically, LevinAira would give a Holsety-wielding Skasher post-promotion.

Of course, that's just really suicidal.

At least Skasaher can actually hit things with an axe, Lex being Odo and all.

[Ansem]

Eh i find Cuan hitting the enemie then having Sigurd finishing him off useful. I used the same to train Finn in the first chapter.

[Tables]

Since Barons could use magic, technically, LevinAira would give a Holsety-wielding Skasher post-promotion.

Of course, that's just really suicidal.

At least Skasaher can actually hit things with an axe, Lex being Odo and all.

It's not actually a bad idea :P. At least, it wouldn't be if Levin was the best dad for other people by a longshot, and the advantages to Levin x Aira were only debatably better then Lex x Aira.

Anyway, I've just been sleeping, and now have to go out, so I guess I'll finish my pairings planning this evening, then actually start

[Thor Odinson]

Well, it does make up for Skasaher's crap speed...

Lakche's broken enough as it is anyway, as usual.

[Tables]

Alright, so here's what I've said:

Aideen: Levin, Noish, Midir, Beowulf, Jamka

Aira: Lex

Lachesis: Midir, Noish

Sylvia: Levin, Midir, Noish, Jamka

Fury: Levin, Noish, Midir, Alec, Beowulf, Claude

Briggid: Noish, Midir, Dew, Alec

Tiltyu: Dew, Beowulf, Noish, Midir

So, first things first, who benefits more from Dew out of Tiltyu and Briggid? I think Tinny, while Briggid quite likes Alec's skills and that frees up superdads. So that's those two sorted. Aira is obvious, and Lachesis has one much better option of the two, since Bows inheritance > no Bows inheritance

Aira x Lex

Lachesis x Midir

Briggid x Alec

Tiltyu x Dew

Aideen: Levin, Noish, Beowulf, Jamka

Sylvia: Levin, Noish, Jamka

Fury: Levin, Noish, Beowulf, Claude

Now we're left with the Levin people.

Aideen x Levin gives a very good Lester from the start, but he lacks Holsety until probably chapter 8 or 9 anyway, and Lana doesn't benefit from the skills until the same point. So despite it coming earliest, it does little for half the game. Without Levin, the kids don't suffer that much - Lester has doubling problems until promotion and has to wait a while to get Elfire, so he's stuck being mediocre until promotion - but Lana doesn't care. Overall, I'd say the losses from no Levin aren't that great.

Sylvia x Levin gives an even later Holsety than above, but it does seriously improve Corple. Leen doesn't care much for Holsety blood, or wrath and pursuit for that matter, although she somehow becomes an almost decent combat unit from this. Without Levin as a dad, Corple is stuck using Elwind - not a bad tome by any reckoning, but from level 1 it's pretty hard to train yourself up. Again, the losses aren't to great compared to no Levin dad.

Fury x Levin is just as amazing as it once used to be. While the wraparound glitch really hurts now, thanks to Sety's much lower SPD, the advantages are immense compared to the next best pairing - Levin passes down staves and magic, and gives some great skills to Fee - Pursuit and Wrath are excellent skills, even on a Dragonknight. Without Levin, Fee ends up a fair bit more mediocre, while Sety ends up very meh, so I think my choice here is clear.

Aira x Lex

Lachesis x Midir

Fury x Levin

Briggid x Alec

Tiltyu x Dew

Aideen: Noish, Beowulf, Jamka

Sylvia: Noish, Jamka

As for these two, it's really a question of who gets Noish. Leen and Corple don't see nearly as much playtime, and that alone is enough to decide it. No Hero Bow inheritance is... not great, but the advantages of Pursuit & Continue outweigh that.

My pairings:

Aideen x Noish

Aira x Lex

Lachesis x Midir

Sylvia x Jamka

Fury x Levin

Briggid x Alec

Tiltyu x Dew

And now, to actually start. Yay!

[Tables]

Uh, so I completed the prologue, typed everything up, noticed a mistake, clicked on hit, hit backspace and... it decides to go back a page and delete everything? I lost basically everything I typed up . I'm pretty angry now. Basically it went something like this:

This is harder than normal.

Lol, 16 turn completion

Azel, why did you gain no stats?

Midir, Ethlin and Noish, why did you all gain just HP levels all on the same turn

Ardan, why did you just get hit by three 27% hit attacks and two 47% hit attacks in one turn?

Lol, Cuan critical on the boss.

Then everyone levelled up and stuff. I don't think anyone is above average, and at least a few people are below average. I can't be bothered to type everything up again for obvious reasons, especially considering I had something like 750 words of stuff up before (and that's quite a lot)

[riariadne]

Waitwaitwait.

Before you keep playing change 1 thing. Just do it.

BriggidXBeowulf. Please don't question it. But you must. Critical Faval must happen.

[Ansem]

Im going to use the same pairings you are.

[Tables]

Waitwaitwait.

Before you keep playing change 1 thing. Just do it.

BriggidXBeowulf. Please don't question it. But you must. Critical Faval must happen.

Meh, it's actually not that much worse than Continue + Charge Faval. Noted, but no.

And Solf, maybe you could try (to make your run a little different to mine):

Aideen x Jamka

Aira x Lex

Lachesis x Midir

Sylvia x Levin

Fury x Noish

Briggid x Alec

Tiltyu x Dew

That way, Lester becomes a little worse, but not by much, but you get to pass on both Hero and Killer bows into early 2nd gen improving Delmud, and Corple becomes a pretty darn useful unit, even joining so underlevelled, thanks to Holsety + Wrath + Bargain + Pursuit. Also Sylvia with Wrath, Hezul and Holsety can probably clear arenas and hold her own if attacked, which would be lol. Fury x Noish gives a decent Fee and... okay Sety.

[Tables]

Update time.

Chapter 1

Preparations

Sigurd destroys rounds 1-5 of the arena, even without Pursuit, and prayer doesn't even kick in, then he gets cleanly 2HKOed by Emil the wind mage. He then sells his Silver Sword. I then realise I've screwed up as Noish can't buy it . Restart, do exactly the same, stop before round 6, sell the Steel Sword.

Noish has a narrow call against the Lance Knight due to missing, but pulls it off. I stop before the swordfighter, since he'd probably beat me.

Alec buys Sigurd's Steel Sword for extra power, and the item shops Iron Lance and looks like he's going to beat the Lance Knight, before missing a 65% chance.

Ardan buys the Slim Sword, since 2 AS means a lot to him, and he proceeds to beat the first five opponents, before I pull him out.

Fin takes the Javelin, then beats four levels, and I pull him out before the Axefighter.

Lex buys the Steel Axe. I find out that Charisma doesn't work in the arena, even for the person who has it. Boo. Either way, I beat opponents 1-3 before pulling Lex out.

Azel is pathetic, and dies against the Lance Knight.

Midir has a close call against the Hunter, due to missing repeatedly, but wins, and I pull him out against the Axe Armour after taking no damage, since I can see he'd need to get very lucky to win.

Cuan stomps through rounds 1-5 of the arena, but like Sigurd, is stumped by the Wind Mage at the end.

Ethlin, with no critical, has serious problems actually killing stuff, so I stop after the Fire Mage.

Might as well do character stats now...

Character | Lv.xp | HP | ST | MG | SK | SP | LK | DF | RS |  Gold | Notes
Sigurd    | 10.11 | 40 | 17 |  1 | 13 | 12 |  9 | 12 |  3 | 16130 |
Noish     |  5.95 | 35 | 11 |  0 |  7 |  8 |  4 |  9 |  0 |  8325 |
Alec      |  4.37 | 34 | 10 |  0 |  9 | 11 |  5 |  8 |  0 |  5460 |
Ardan     |  6.47 | 39 | 16 |  0 |  6 |  5 |  3 | 13 |  0 |  8720 |
Fin       |  5.22 | 36 | 10 |  0 |  9 | 12 | 11 |  7 |  0 |  9040 | SPD Ring
Cuan      |  7.78 | 38 | 17 |  0 | 11 | 11 |  5 | 12 |  3 | 14860 |
Midir     |  4.64 | 34 |  9 |  0 |  7 | 10 |  3 |  8 |  0 |  9420 |
Azel      |  3.55 | 31 |  1 | 10 |  7 | 10 |  3 |  2 |  6 |  7460 |
Lex       |  6.60 | 35 | 10 |  0 | 11 | 11 |  9 | 10 |  0 | 14790 |
Ethlin    |  3.55 | 30 |  5 |  8 | 12 | 12 |  8 |  4 |  6 |  5540 |

Evans to Genoa

I move everyone south, while healing my wounded. Aideen and Dew emerge. Aideen should end up being a pretty nice healer thanks to Fala blood, although I doubt it'll make much difference really (since Relive already heals 46 at base magic for her). Dew has some awesome skills and should make an interesting combat unit - once he has a proper weapon, at least (I know just what weapon I want to give him - the Prayer Sword - but it might take too long, and I might just stick to grabbing the Wind Edge for him).

Taking out Kinbois' men proves easier than I expect, after first luring them in, the practically running behind them on the next turn (yes, really - my squidgies were closer to Genoa than anyone else). Dew damages his Iron Sword pretty badly thanks to repeated - and useless - Astra activations.

Aira decides to head towards Aideen. Uh oh. I lure her back with Ethlin - a simple, practical solution, as she's 2HKOed and neither can get a lucky skill off. Captain then decides that axes are awesome to dodgetank with, and dodges 1/2 84% hit arrows, 1/2 70% hit lances and a 74% axe hit, stopping be being able to capture Genoa. Restart! Noish now weakens him with 3 hits, followed by Lex and finally Midir claiming the kill, for Sigurd to sieze. Oh, then Noish kills Aira. Restart! I leave Sigurd and Ethlin as the only people in range this time, as Sigurd can't kill her either, and can survive one skill activation, and Etlin has just been healed by Aideen. As expected, Aira goes for Sig... huh? She didn't attack? Her hit rate is 45%... I'm confused. Oh well, easy recruit next turn. I forgot to check when this was at the time, but I think it was turn 7 that I siezed.

Genoa to Marpha

Sigurd recruits Aira, who hits the Arena. Luna is a somewhat meh skill, but Critical on a Swordmaster is always nice, and she shows it here, criticalling four opponents and, after a few attempts on the Wind Mage, clearing the Arena. Awesome.

Aideen gives Ethlin the return staff, while I advance my whole army towards Dew and Marpha. Dew gets another levelup, +1 DEF to go with his +1 MAG from last time ¬_¬. Why is my whole army getting RNG screwed? Dew gives the Warp staff, and 26,000G to Aideen. She now has 31K, which IIRC is almost enough money to spam any staff to promotion that she can get her hands on. After finishing off the Marpha armies, Azel and Ardan make it to the battle, and everyone else runs off again. Poor slow people. Each does get to make one kill, though, at least. Dew manages to break his Iron Sword at this point as well. Awesome.

I decide to waste an extra turn for Aira to take the boss kill. With two skills that are Skill dependant, and a somewhat inaccurate weapon, having a Skill Ring go to her seems by far the best choice. In fact, I question whether this even cost a turn, since I still have to get Aideen to the chokepoint in the forest. I seize Marpha on turn 20

Marpha to Verdane

I send Dew into the arena, then suddenly realise his sword is broken and I'd just given my money away. Epic fail. I decide he can go to the south-west village, get the money, come back, and try the arena. Everyone else advances through the forest - Lex, Aideen and Sigurd are the three key people, so I ensure they move as far as possible each turn, and recruit Jamka. Jamka is a lot less dangerous now, since he can't proc 4 rounds of combat or more, but he does still have a killer bow. Still, Midir tanks him and Aideen rushes in to recruit him, leaving me in a somewhat compromised position (Aideen in in the chokepoint, with 4 bandits in range), but the +20% avoid from forest, +20% from Sigurd/Lex and low hit rate of axes lets me survive anyway. Jamka then heads slowly back to Marpha, along with Dew, while Sigurd recruits Diedre and her currently useless Pursuit (-8 AS doubles... not even the Brigands in this chapter, and precisely one arena opponent - and that's in chapter 3). Diedre heads forwards instead of back; while she would gain more exp from the arena than combat and silencing, she's cause even more clogg in an already clogged up pipe. I could warp her back after Silencing, though...

Dew makes it back to the Arena, repairs his Iron Sword, and begins fighting. Ugh, 1 damage ¬_¬. Yay, decent level up! Dew, you have almost redeemed yourself. Except for deciding that no skills or dodging are needed against a Fire mage v.v. A few attempts made his 47% hit miss twice (an Astra would have had the same effect). He fights the Lance Knight for Lolz and gets destroyed.

Before anything else notable happens on the main front, Jamka reaches the arena. Pursuit, Critical and Prayer is a nice combination, as he demonstrates by reaching round 7 without activating Prayer once. Oops.

Sigurd starts fighting the castle guard, while Diedre silences Sandima, gets a HP+LUK level. Other units, such as Cuan, Noish, Alec, Ethlin and Aideen catch up and help fight, and the hunters all begin to fall. Sandima gets unsilenced, and holy heck, he hits hard ¬_¬. Most people get OHKOed, and thanks to an RNG string, I miss my first attack at about 85% hit, too :(. I rejig the RNG by sending Dew into the arena, hit him once... and then it happens AGAIN? What is this madness? I do NOT like having to mess around with random numbers because my 85% hit attacks miss twice in a row ¬_¬. After getting rid of the RNG stupidity, Ethlin takes the bosskill and with it, her first kill in the field and the Magic ring. Sigurd then siezes for a 34 turn completion.

Stats:

Character | Lv.xp | HP | ST | MG | SK | SP | LK | DF | RS |  Gold | Notes
Sigurd    | 12.12 | 42 | 17 |  1 | 14 | 12 | 10 | 13 |  3 | 19130 |
Noish     |  7.95 | 36 | 12 |  0 |  7 |  8 |  4 |  9 |  0 | 14825 |
Alec      |  7.03 | 37 | 12 |  0 | 10 | 12 |  6 | 10 |  0 | 12960 |
Ardan     |  7.29 | 40 | 16 |  0 |  6 |  5 |  3 | 14 |  0 | 11720 |
Fin       |  8.77 | 39 | 11 |  0 | 11 | 14 | 13 |  9 |  0 | 12040 | Speed Ring
Cuan      |  9.65 | 40 | 17 |  0 | 11 | 13 |  5 | 12 |  3 | 17860 |
Midir     |  7.90 | 37 | 11 |  0 |  9 | 12 |  4 |  8 |  0 | 12420 |
Azel      |  4.39 | 32 |  1 | 10 |  7 | 10 |  3 |  2 |  6 | 11460 |
Jamka     |  8.76 | 37 | 13 |  0 | 14 | 14 |  4 |  9 |  1 | 17100 |
Lex       |  7.93 | 36 | 11 |  0 | 12 | 11 |  9 | 10 |  0 | 17790 |
Dew       |  4.42 | 29 |  4 |  1 |  7 | 15 | 13 |  3 |  0 |  8305 |
Diedre    |  5.15 | 27 |  0 | 14 |  9 | 12 |  7 |  4 | 17 |  6400 |
Ethlin    |  7.91 | 34 |  6 |  8 | 14 | 14 |  8 |  5 |  6 |  8540 | Magic Ring
Aira      |  9.46 | 35 | 14 |  0 | 17 | 17 |  4 | 10 |  1 | 22780 | Skill Ring
Aideen    |  7.40 | 31 |  0 | 14 |  8 | 10 | 11 |  1 | 10 | 34000 |

Edited July 28, 2010 by I Eat Tables

[Tables]

Welcome to I Eat Tables "Watch me rant at the RNG" playlog. Enjoy your stay.

Chapter 2

Preparations

Aira attacks the arena, and... loses horribly on round 3? That can't be right... retry until she gets a critical, which is fairly quick. Then she loses again on round 5, and I deem it unlikely for her to win with 1HP, so move on. Still, if Aira can't clear the arena, damn.

Sigurd trys next. I buy him the Steel Lance, at least for now - Fin is getting the Hero Lance pretty soon anyway. Thanks to it, he just about clears round 5, the Lance Armour, then finishes off round 6, the Thunder Mage, and Holyn. Phew, I was worried I wasn't going to be able to recruit Holyn :P.

Holyn is amusingly similar to Holyn statwise - Aira has 3 more LUK, and Holyn has 5 more HP. That's it.

Holyn has to reply on brute force in the arena, since Charge is worthless there, so he grabs the Steel Blade and starts killing stuff. Wow, 6 stat level for Holyn! I pull out before the Lance Armour.

Fin beats a few opponents, buys the Steel Lance off of Sigurd (hey, he got use from it anyway), and with it's help, 3HKOs the Swordfighter. I stop after round 6, as I don't think I can beat the Forrest.

Noish goes into the arena... and actually gets a decent level up! At last. He also buys Fin's Iron Lance, which he uses against the Lance Knight and Swordfighter. Regardless of WTA, he loses against the Swordfighter and I pull him out with 4HP.

Alec beats opponents 1-3, and doesn't try the Swordfighter. He has a better bet than Noish against him, but not by much.

Lex beats opponents 1-3 with a Steel Axe and Hero Axe, then retreats. WTD and being doubled won't get beaten with a Hero Axe.

Midir beats a few opponents, then yeilds to the Bowfighter - being doubled = not fun.

Jamka Killer Bow's his way through the tough opponents, but takes Midir's Iron Bow for the first 3 rounds. He gives round 7 a go, but gets messed up by the RNG, like oh so often.

Ethlin beats two opponents, then gives up. Or that was the plan, but she too got RNG screwed, both in battle and in her levelup. Blargh.

Dew trades his sword with Ethlin, and beats the first two rounds up. HP, STR, LUK. Another Mediocre level. I am not impressed, Dew. I am not impressed.

Cuan flexes his muscles, and people die. Six of them, to be precise.

Diedre just about beats two rounds of the arena.

Azel buys the Thunder tome, because he can. He loses to round two of the arena, when he has weapon triange advantage. Lol.

Last and certainly not least (because Azel exists), Ardan beats round 1-3, gets just +STR, and I decide he can't beat the swordfighter. But I also decide he won't be seeing combat until about turn 30 anyway, due to getting the Pursuit ring and 5 movement, so he tries it... and wins! Well, not really, but he came one attack away.

Aideen repairs staffs, I consider the merits and drawbacks to switching Aideen and Ethlin's Live/Relive, but decide against, save the game and call it a night.

Edit: One last thing to note: I noticed that Lachesis has Charisma as both a class and a citizen skill. So I actually have another Charisma bot during first gen, which helps.

Edited July 29, 2010 by I Eat Tables

[Thor Odinson]

Weird. Aira has Holyn's old skill set + Critical, but can't beat the Arena, whereas my original Holyn usually roflpwns it.

I guess it will change when Hero Sword comes around.

I just thought of something. AiraDew actually wouldn't be that bad of a pairing, save it's numerous turns, lack of Hero Sword (unless you get it done fast and never let Lex/Holyn even touch Aira before hand), and HP growths under 100, since Dew's other growths are quite good.

Lakche would get Astra back, for one, And Skasaher would get pursuit.

Edited July 29, 2010 by Luminescent Blade

[Tables]

I think luck was an element in it, as well as Aira's inferior durability.

Aira x Dew... yeah, I did consider that briefly, actually, but didn't put it down because I considered Lex just that much better. When you put it that way, I can certainly see it's benefits, but I think I'm happy with Dew where he is anyway (bear in mind I now have three different swordfighter kids, and all of them would like Astra)

Edit: Just checked my pairings love fortunes.

Aideen: Midir in on your mind

Noish: Currently don't have feelings for anyone

Aira: Currently don't have feelings for anyone

Lex: Currently don't have feelings for anyone

So, eh. Baby steps first.

Edited July 29, 2010 by I Eat Tables

[Thor Odinson]

Aira's Neir blood theoretically should improve her durability, but I guess it hasn't kicked in yet.

True. And LunaCrit is broken enough as it is, on high-defense enemies anyway.

I had Lakche kill the guy with 47 DEF in one hit with that.

Since Lakche will have Odo blood back, her SKL will be capping a lot faster than Aira would which means that critical would happen much more.

Edit: My original favorite pairing isn't worth using anymore. *sad* But that's okay.

Edited July 29, 2010 by Luminescent Blade

[Tables]

Evans to Herhein

Everyone moves out - mounted units move as far as possible, since I want to get the Knight Ring (and therefore save the Paladins). I use Aideen and Ethlin tactfully to heal my mounts and get Ethlin the Light Sword, without them having to slow down (Aideen loses some movement as a result, but she's not urgent to move in). Eve dodges the first attack thrown at him - this makes me happy as the enemies have 84% hit on him, even if they do 9HKO. By turn 4, I'm used to seeing two of the Paladins down to less than 20 HP, yet somehow, they're on 30/49/51 HP, so I expect I'll be able to keep them all alive. Hurrah!

Noish, Lex and Fin move in, take a kill each, level up, and all gain 3-5 stats including some of the important ones (STR, SPD, DEF). I am no longer angry with the RNG. Cuan lets the team down my just gaining HP. Oh well. The rest of Elliot's army falls quite easily. Sigurd recruits Lachesis, who thanks to Elite, B staves, Charisma and an excellent promotion, I expect will prove to be one of my MVPs. Cuan kills Elliot, and takes the Silver Lance.

Lachesis then takes the arena. She gets a nice levelup after round 2, but loses to the Lance Knight. I don't repair her Prayer Sword, since it might be going to Dew, depending on when it breaks relative to getting the Wind Sword.

Cuan lures some armours out, and I start fighting them. Huh, this is also the first time I fight something other than axes and bows, excluding Aira. The foot soldiers have just about caught up with the mounts at this point, so they help take down the armours as well, and Aira and Lex get to stand together again, at least briefly. Cuan takes down the boss and gets the Return ring. I don't really use Return Rings, like, ever, but I guess that Altenna might want to use that in chapter 9, or something.

I finish off the armours with ease and advance on Heirhein. Cuan chips the boss, and... wait, nevermind, Cuan critkills the boss, takes the Barrier ring (like he didn't already have enough stuff from this chapter) and stands on the sieze square to finish off the armours. Also, Dew had given Lachesis the Thief Sword at some point but I forgot to note when. Oops. Not that she's going to keep it - passing it on to a Thief is a bit redundant. Sigurd then siezes on turn 11, while everyone else continues moving north (except Ardan, going to get that nice shiny ring). 11 turns is pretty nice - thanks to Levin's pursuit, I can definitely save all of the villages, which is also nice.

[Balcerzak]

I don't think Master Knight has Charisma as a class skill (I don't remember Leaf gaining it), so when Lachesis promotes, be aware she'll probably lose the nifty bonus. Still, awesome while it lasts, and good for Princesses.

[Tables]

Ah, you're right, there. Still, 3 move, pursuit, 7 STR and various other boosts is certainly beating out charisma in usefulness (especially considering that foot units can't keep up with the mounted units anyway)

I like the subtle hint you've got at least as far as promoting Leaf in your Let's Play :P.

[Tables]

Heirhein to Anphony. Aka, the one where my Paladins commit suicide.

Everyone keeps moving in. Ardan is close to the pursuit ring now, a couple of turns out. Everyone else is heading up to Anphony - hopefully those Paladins will stay under control, though, I don't want them comitting suicide on me. Levin and Sylvia save the villages. I'm going to save the northernmost one with Levin, and ignore the others - that and the most southern village are the only things with anything but money in, and siezing Anphony kills the Bandits anyway.

Cuan talks to fin, and gives him the Hero Lance. He uses it on a nearby Duke Knight, and continues to advance on Anphony. Hopefully I can take out most of the Armours before the Free experience Knights get into range.

The Paladins attack in what looks like a suicide attempt. Crap. I save in a seperate slot and watch as Alva is reduced to 4 HP, so I zerg rush in to help save them. They aren't sensible enough to retreat. Restart! This time, I leave the Lance/Duke knights alive, so the Paladins waste time on them instead of being suicidal. It seems to work.

Unfortunately, they still happily make a suicide attack into the armours the turn after. Ugh. Sigurd hires Beowulf, who helps take them down.

Ardan: "If only I could repeated attack like Alec... that'd give me the edge I need." Heh.

Having taking down most of the armours, I'm happy that the Paladins can do little more than retreat. Excellent. WRONG! They instead rush straight at the Free Knights, and inevitably die. Ugh, why do you have to be so stupid? Isn't your objective to protect Lachesis, not be aggressive?

Third time lucky. This time I'm extremely aggressive as well, pushing as close to the armours. After attacking, I seem to be in a good position... nope, I forget that Lex can no longer tank well, and he gets taken down. Another attempt, and everything seems to go smoothly. The Free Knights do single point damage to the Paladins, so they aren't a threat. Voltz, however, is, and I also need his Elite ring to go to the right person... hm, Dew could sure use it. But that's not gonna happen, so... Noish is another good option. Either way, the Paladins are safe now, at least, as long as Voltz doesn't continue them. And he doesn't even attack them, so it's all good.

That was crazy, but it's all over now. I start weakening Volkz for Noish to kill... until he decides to continue on Beowulf and hit twice at 70%. Ugh. I try things again, and things go much better, with Noish getting the Elite ring. I finish off all of the other Mercenaries, then start working on MacCheat.

They say that, once, MacBeth impaled himself on someone's sword, then described the experience as 'a little tickly'. They say that, once, MacBeth defended Anphony from an entire army by standing still and belching every time he got hurt. After his first belch, 24 hours into the battle, the enemies fled in terror. They say that MacBeth is secretly level 99, and just displays his level as 22 to lure in unsuspecting Chalphys.

Okay, it wasn't that bad, but he did get some inconveniently timed Big Shields. Such as Sigurd in OHKO range. And everyone who deals more than 5 damage per attack. But he died, eventually, and surrendered his Shield Ring to Sigurd, who also siezed, on turn 18.

Before the end of the turn, Beowulf visited the arena, got a notably rubbish +HP level, and got through rounds 1-3 by skill, round 4 by a lucky critical, then gave up. Levin has picked up the Bargain Ring, and I'm sending Beowulf to get the Cutter. Cuan also gives the arena another shot, after being returned (in retrospect, I should have used the Return Ring. Whatever.), looks like he's going to win, and blows it on 82% hit.

[Tables]

Anphony to Mackily Aka, the one where the RNG doesn't mess with me. No, JK.

Hm, what would be more useful, Dew collecting about 22K from villages, or fighting alongside my army? Well, he does need the experience, and I'm not wanting for money... but on the other hand, he probably wouldn't get to do much anyway. Hm... okay. Dew is going to save villages for probably the rest of the chapter.

Everyone else follows the road towards Mackily. Some people get help in the forms of warps or returns, which helps them a little, but also provides some extra exp.

I mess up, and have to send Beowulf back to talk to Lachesis a little late, but he wasn't likely to see combat again anyway, so I can't say I'm that bothered.

Levin gets warped home, and hits the arena. I predict a whitewash. I predict correctly, as Levin also gains a 5 stat level with the big three stats, then another with +3, and a more mediocre +2. Slightly unsurprisingly, he does manage to finish the arena, and I think it's clear that Levin is going to be one of the best fighters in Gen 1. He then leaves and heads up the mountains to the north. He won't get to see combat, except with Fury's squad, but at least he can get a little more exp (not that he even needs it).

Sylvia... was supposed to visit the arena, but I forgot. Not that it matters, she couldn't beat more than 1-2 opponents.

I get into combat while my units are really still getting back, but that's fine. I have about 9 units in combat range (just about) so I can muster up a good defence. AZEL KILLS SOMETHING! AND LEVELS UP! AND GETS 7 STATS! Sorry, that should be 'Doesn't get 7 stats'. Obviously. Anything more than a +2 level would shock Azel to death. In fact, using that Lightning tome with his skills will probably end up shocking him to death.

Anyway, that's enough picking on Azel. Ardan is surprisingly effective, provided he can both reach combat and double - which he can do here, and leaves a Lance Knight at 10 HP. The rest of my army easily finishes off the Lance Knights. Cavaliers next.

Meanwhile, Beowulf finally gets to head back to get the Cutter. That worked 'well'. Levin has moved into range of the Fury Squad, Dew has almost reached the villages, and Aideen x Noish, Jamka x Sylvia, Lachesis x Midir, and Aira x Lex are building. Hm, will Fury attack Levin? ...Will Fury get killed by Levin? Okay, she will, quite easily, if she attacks, at 75% hit. Eh, let's chance it. Levin attacks the Fury Squad some more, gets another mediocre levelup.

The Cavaliers fall quickly and easily. Fury flies straight past Levin, but stays in talk range. Isn't she nice? "Prince Levin? Th, this isn't possible..." Hehe. Too bad I couldn't kill her due to missing, would have been more amusing. Reload, talk, she flies upwards but stays out of Ballista and sleep range.

Fury... Mmm, how useless.

Dew visits a village, I move into ballista range, and eat a toasted ham sandwich. Yum. Also Sylvia and Jamka have caught up with my army. The enemy swarms up to me. Yay, chokepoint with 5 ballistas raining death chip damage on me!

Hm, I seem to have let Aira get put to sleep. Oops. Also, Alva has 4 HP and I don't know if I can heal him. Oops. This should be fun. Fin Hero Lances the Armour Knight, Ardan flexes his muscles and ORKOs a Fire Mage. I decide that Lachesis should take the Sleep Stave, she'd make the most use of it, so Lex weakens Clement... and can't retreat. Uh oh. he... is probably going to kill him. Oh, no, Clement will just use sleep on someone. I'm good. Fury fights with an Armour Knight for EXP. It's sad how close it is. Clement attacks Lex. Uh oh. Lex misses. It's all good. Sylvia... gets killed by a Ballita . Blargh.

Retry that, leave Sylvia out of range, but do everything else the same (which I manage right down to the last action. Go go short term memory!). Now things look good. Lachesis kills... no, 70% hit miss. Restart! I attack the Knight with Fury first this time, and... BLARGH! Restart! Now Levin doesn't attack after Fury, and... it works, but Ethlin now claims a zero stat level. There's just no middle ground. I try once more, with Ethlin healing after Lachesis kills. Now Lachesis gets a bad level, and Ethlin gets a mediocre one. Screw it, that'll do.

Beowulf reaches the villages, and Aideen catches up with the army. Sylvia, Diedre and Jamka had been pinned down by the Ballistas, so they're waiting for Sigurd to sieze. Fury has moved into range of Mackily, so she can visit the arena soon.

Sigurd sizes the castle on turn 30. Beowulf and Dew keep visiting villages, and everyone else moves up and along, getting healed on the way.