LHM + HHM Playthrough: S-Rank + Max Tactician Stars

[ruadath]

Chapter 8



Here is the formation. Sain is the southern cavalier. Nothing much to say in terms of preparation except that Dorcas should have a free spot to get the Lancereaver.

Turn 1: Dorcas heads west of the forest, equipping the Hand Axe. Nils play for him from the south, and Dorcas moves 2 west of the village entrance. Serra moves south of the other forest. Sain, Kent and Florina advance south as depicted in the image (Florina equips Iron Lance).



Enemy Turn 1: The enemy merc attacks Florina from the south. The ballistae, mage, and shaman attack Nils, but only the mage hits.

Turn 2: Dorcas visits the village, Serra heals Nils from above, Nils plays for her, and Serra heads back west. Rath moves 1 SE. Kent attacks the cav from the forest north of him, Florina kills the merc from the forest to the west, and Sain finishes the cav Kent attacked from the west (all with Iron Lance).



Enemy Turn 2: Two soldiers attack Kent, get doubled and die. This is followed by the other cav attacking Kent.



Not an amazing level, but since Kent has already proc'd all of his auxiliary stats at least once and is missing a point of Str, I'm very happy to take this. The three units attack Nils, but again only the mage hits. The archer attacks Kent.

Turn 3: Florina kills the cav from the east, and Kent doubles the archer from the south. Sain moves 1 SE of Kent. Dorcas heads back west and Serra heals Nils from above.



A great level for Serra. Nils plays for her from the west and she retreats back west.

Enemy Turn 3: Everything misses Nils.

Turn 4: Dorcas moves above Nils, Florina moves 2 west of Nils. Serra heals Florina (she hits C staves) and Nils plays for Florina. Florina heads back south to where she started. Rath and Lyn take Serra to safety, and Sain kills the bandit.

Enemy Turn 4: Two regular soldiers, an Axereaver soldier, and a Lancereaver merc attack Sain and die. The three units attack Nils, with only the mage hitting.

Turn 5: Dorcas attacks the mage from the west with the Iron Axe, Nils plays for him, and he moves onto the forest with the Hand Axe equipped. Sain attacks Yogi from the south, but he misses the second attack. This is good since he gains extra EXP (and gets a level up when the RNG is better).



Kent moves above the forest, and Florina west of him. Serra heals Dorcas and Lyn and Rath take her to safety. 6 RNs are burned.

Enemy Turn 5: Yogi attacks Sain and dies.



The swordreaver brigand also attacks Sain and dies. Everything misses Nils.



Turn 6: Serra heals Nils, who plays for her. Sain kills the closer soldier, then Dorcas kills the shaman. Serra heals Dorcas again, then after burning 2 RNs, Lyn kills the mage.

Florina and Kent clean up by taking care of the remaining soldier and archer, respectively.

[spoiler=Stats]

Name:     Lv.XP HP STR SKL SPD LCK DEF RES
Lyn:      8.07  22  11  13  14  8   5   1
Sain:    12.63  30  19  8   17  10  10  1
Kent:     4.51  22  8   8   10  3   6   2
Florina:  2.93  18  6   8   10  7   5   4
Wil:      2.73  BASE
Dorcas:   3.64  BASE
Erk:      1.40  BASE
Serra:    3.42  18  3   6   9   7   3   5
Rath:     7.13  BASE
Matthew:  2.50  BASE
Nils:     4.87  16  0   0   15  13  8   5
Lucius:   3.00  BASE

EDIT: A slight modification was made to this strategy so that Lyn levelled up at the end.

Edited August 19, 2015 by ruadath

[Brinzy]

Level 8 Lyn with 11 Strength

Pretty sure we've all had promoted Lyns with 11 Strength or less >_>

[ruadath]

Level 8 Lyn with 11 Strength

Pretty sure we've all had promoted Lyns with 11 Strength or less >_>

Yeah, I know what you mean. The nice thing is that with this high Str, Lyn can ORKO Lundgren with the Mani Katti assuming she crits on at least one attack. However, I think she still gets OHKO'd by his counter.

[ruadath]

Alright, since I've got a clear of Chapter 9 with the desired results (which will be posted soon), I'm going to give a brief discussion of my benchmarks for each of these chapters.

On my last playthrough, I cleared LHM in 79/85 turns. This time, I'm looking to hit 78 by spending 3 more turns on Chapter 7x, spending one less turn on 8 and 9, and spending two less turns on 10. Last time, I needed to have Nils get hit 110 times total in the campaign to supplement the EXP he got from dancing. Since he has one turn less this time, he needs to get hit 120 times. I cleared Chapter 7x with Nils having gotten hit 62 times, which means he needed to be hit 58 more times. He then got hit 15 more times in Chapter 8 (this is optimal in 6 turns) to take him down to 43 more hits required in the final 2 chapters.

This is just barely possible to do. While these chapters have a lot more turns available, and more enemies can attack Nils per turn, the 5-star requirement for the combat rank (40% of battles are wins) sets a limit to how much one can grind Nils' EXP up. In particular, Chapter 10 only has 16 enemies (after reinforcements), which means Nils can only get hit 24 more times at most, assuming that everything on the map gets killed and ORKOd.

This is of course, pretty infeasible, so I set 22-23 to be the limit for how much EXP I could hope to get from Chapter 10. On the other hand, Chapter 9 has 22 total enemies, which allows for a bit over 30 hits on Nils; however, in order to achieve the high EXP requirement of 650 for this chapter, one has to accept quite a few non-killing battles by your other units.

I just finished getting a 7-turn clear of Chapter 9 with 21 hits on Nils, which means I need to do Chapter 10 with 22 hits on Nils. This can be done either by killing everything and having two non kills, or killing everything but one unit and having no battles which aren't ORKOs. I'm probably going to go for the former option.

[ruadath]

Chapter 9

Here is the starting formation I decided to go with this time around. Sain is the northern cav.

Turn 1: Wallace moves 1 south and forks his Knight Crest over to Sain, who then moves 1 east of the bridge. Nils plays for him from the bridge, then Sain moves onto the SW corner of the forest. Kent rescues Nils from the east, Florina moves east of Kent, takes and drops Nils one east of her. Lyn moves 2 south of Oswin Wallace, Matthew moves 1 NW of him to Lyn's original position, Serra moves 1 east of Wallace. Rath visits the village and returns to his original position. Dorcas stays where he is.

Enemy Turn 1: The mercenary hits Nils.

Turn 2: Sain attacks the cav above him from the south, missing his second attack to reduce him to 1 HP. Nils plays for him from the west, then Sain charges 3 spaces south.

Just two more levels to go.

Florina moves 2 south of Sain, Lyn moves west of Kent, Kent moves as far NE as he can go (equips Iron Lance). Serra moves NW of Lyn.

Enemy Turn 2: The 1 HP cav attacks Nils, followed by the myrmidon attacking Kent. The merc and a bandit also attack Nils.

Turn 3: Sain moves 2 east, 2 south. Florina moves east of Nils, who plays for her, then returns to where she started (2 west of Sain). Lyn moves north of the nearest bandit, and Kent retreats to the space east of the bridge. Serra moves behind Kent onto the bridge. Wallace moves above the bandit near him, but doesn't attack. Dorcas attacks the visible soldier from below, and Rath moves below him.

Enemy Turn 3: The 1 HP cav attacks Nils again. Two soldiers near Eagler suicide on Sain. A merc attacks Nils, then a brigand attacks Wallace. Two more brigands attack Nils, then another brigand attacks Wallace. Another soldier suicides on Dorcas, giving him a good level.

A bandit attacks Lyn and gets crit-killed; another bandit attacks Lyn and gets killed by her double.

Turn 4: Alright, allowed to kill stuff now. And we've got 503 EXP to go in 4 turns, so we'd best be efficient about it. Lyn crit kills the bandit south of Nils from below. Serra moves 3 west onto the forest, then Wallace rescues her from above. Matthew moves 2 south to Wallace's original position and kills the southern bandit. Florina moves 4 spaces north and kills the 1 HP cav from below.

And that's another nice level for Florina. Nils moves 1 south, and plays for Florina, then Florina rescues Lyn and moves 1 NW of Sain. Sain moves one north, takes Lyn and drops her south where he was originally, then moves 1 SE of Lyn. Rath moves 2 east, 3 north to sight the enemy soldier, then Dorcas kills him from below. Kent burns 5 RNs, then moves 1 space east and equips his Iron Sword.

Enemy Turn 4: The injured bandit attacks Matthew to give him a good level.

He gets the all important Str/Def/Spd necessary for him to become reliable in HHM.

Another soldier dies on Dorcas (he crit-kills him, though he didn't need to), a merc and a bandit attack Nils, and a bandit attacks Kent (and dies). Two cavs attack Nils, followed by an archer.

321 EXP to go. Halfway there.

Turn 5: Sain attacks Eagler with his lance, missing once. Then Florina kills the archer from below. Matthew moves 2 east, takes and drops Serra east, and Wallace moves to aggro the final SW brigand. Kent burns 4 RNs, then attacks the bandit west of Nils with his lance.

That's a nice level for Kent. He probably won't be seeing too much use beyond this chapter in LHM, though. He also hits D in lances.

Nils moves 1W to play for Kent, and then Kent moves east of Serra. Dorcas charges east and Rath follows behind him. I burn 2 more RNs before the end of the turn.

Enemy Turn 5: Eagler attacks Sain with the Hand Axe; one of Sain's counters hits.

A solid defensive level for Sain. The 4 enemies all attack Nils, and the brigand attacks Wallace. 232 EXP to go.

Turn 6: Matthew takes care of the last SW brigand. Sain kills Eagler.

And that's a great level for Sain to finish off; only 104 EXP to go! And we've still got 78G to do it! We could actually clear the chapter this turn, but we need the extra hits on Nils, plus we want to promote Sain.

Dorcas moves 2 south, Rath moves 1 east. Serra heals Kent. Kent moves up to Nils, who plays for him, then retreats to Serra.

Enemy Turn 6: The enemy myrmidon charges Dorcas and gets killed. All the enemies attack Nils.

Turn 7: Florina kills the archer, Kent kills the western cav. Dorcas attacks the northern cav and Nils plays for Kent. Kent doesn't need to kill the northern cav, since we've already hit our EXP target, and our combat rank is good.

Sain promotes.

Looking pretty good! Unfortunately, he didn't quite hit A in lances...

...but that doesn't really matter. Anyway, Lyn seizes to clear!

[ruadath]

Oh yeah, and here are the stats:

Name:     Lv.XP HP STR SKL SPD LCK DEF RES
Lyn:      8.35  22  11  13  14  8   5   1
Sain:     1.00  34  21  10  19  12  13  3
Kent:     5.17  23  9   9   11  3   6   2
Florina:  3.66  19  7   9   11  8   5   4
Wil:      2.73  BASE
Dorcas:   4.88  31   8   8   6   3   4   0
Erk:      1.40  BASE
Serra:    3.64  18  3   6   9   7   3   5
Rath:     7.13  BASE
Matthew:  3.49  19  5   4   12  3   4   0
Nils:     5.78  17  0   0   15  14  9   6
Lucius:   3.00  BASE
Wallace: 12.18  BASE

[ruadath]

I think I might rerun Chapter 9 and give the last kill to Dorcas instead of Kent. This will keep Kent at a flat 5.00, and furthermore take Dorcas to level 5. This is convenient for me, since it'll let me adapt my strategies from my original HHM run more easily. I'll let you guys know once I've done that.

[ruadath]

Alright, so it ended up being the case that Kent still got the EXP, but Florina didn't kill the archer. Florina will still get to level 4 in Chapter 10, so this isn't really an issue. Here is the level that Dorcas got.

Not great, but I don't really care as long as he gets Str.

[ruadath]

Chapter 10

I'm not really up for giving a complete playlog of what happened, so I'll just summarize important events and provide screenshots of levels.

Turn 2: Nils gains a level while playing

Turn 5: Wil kills one of Nils' 4 assailants (the soldier since he can double him) for a great level.

He then trades his bow over to Rath since he'll be doing the rest of the clean up at the top of the map. Florina takes out the shaman guarding the village.

Turn 6: Florina visits the village this turn. Serra gets a level from healing Nils.

Turn 7: Florina takes out the merc for a nice level.

Enemy Turn 7 : Lyn gets a good level killing one of the cavs this turn.

Turn 8: Rath kills the mage this turn. Lyn waits in front of Lundgren.

Turn 9: Rath kills one of the archers, Lyn crit-kills Lundgren.

Turn 10: After the enemy turn finishes on turn 9, we see this beautiful screen

And Nils has made it! He plays one last time to get that final level.

And despite trying to spend as few EXP as possible, I've still gotten 574/450 EXP.

Lyn seizes to clear LHM for (hopefully) the last time!

[ruadath]

Also here is my ranking screen (another improvement in funds!)

So finally clear in 78 turns! I'm pretty excited about this! Here are my stats:

Name:     Lv.XP  HP STR SKL SPD LCK DEF RES
Lyn:      10.35  24  11  14  16  10  6   1
Sain:      1.00  34  21  10  19  12  13  3
Kent:      5.17  23  9   9   11  3   6   2
Florina:   4.30  20  8   10  12  8   5   5
Wil:       3.03  21  7   5   6   7   6   0
Dorcas:    5.08  31  9   8   6   3   4   0
Erk:       1.40  BASE
Serra:     4.63  18  4   6   9   8   3   6
Rath:      7.57  BASE
Matthew:   3.49  19  5   4   12  3   4   0
Nils:      7.00  19  0   0   17  16  9   8
Lucius:    3.00  BASE
Wallace:  12.18  BASE

[Brinzy]

Congrats! I hope that this is your official completion of Lyn's Mode. Interesting to me is how Lucius and especially Erk are base level, so they will be very useful for exp padding immediately once you get them.

[ruadath]

Yeah thanks, I'm definitely not planning on looking at LHM again for some time (if ever).

Interesting to me is how Lucius and especially Erk are base level, so they will be very useful for exp padding immediately once you get them.

Yep, that was indeed one of the focuses of this run. You'll notice in fact that, with the exception of Lyn (and Rath/Wallace), everyone is lower levels than before compared to my original run. Kent and Florina are respectively 2 and 3 levels lower than there original 7, Dorcas and will are both near the beginning of their levels rather than in the middle, Serra has shaved off a few EXP points. Most notably, Matthew is only halfway to level 4; last time I raised him up to level 6! Erk also has saved a lot of EXP, last time I let him soak up EXP on the final chapter to get close to level 5, not realizing that it would serve me far better to leave him at base.

So yeah, things are looking pretty good going into HHM. One immediate point that should be noted is that Matthew's lower level may cause some strategy changes in the earlier levels. However, I don't think it will be a big deal, and the fact that he gains more EXP should make it so that the strategy for Chapter 13 is more reliable (in particular, I shouldn't have to rig those criticals at the end of the chapter for Guy and Rebecca). I'll still be using the mine though.

Also, I won't make the same mistake this time around with being overly frugal. Matthew will be picking up an Iron Axe in Birds of a Feather, and I'll still get the Iron Lance and Heal staff in Noble Lady of Caelin.

On a different note, for some reason I am no longer able to access the page on Something Awful with Melth's FE7 run. Is there a view limit or something? If anyone knows something about this, I'd very much like some assistance with this, since Melth's guide was really useful for comparing strats, etc.

Edited August 20, 2015 by ruadath

[Brinzy]

It is good to see you got something out of your first ranked attempt besides a headache.

I guess I will just wait and see how you do everything else.

[ruadath]

Another question worth pondering is whether or not the Brave Bow is that important as the third use of the Hammerne Staff.

In my last run, a good amount of effort was spent in trying to raise Rebecca's weapon rank in Bows to B so that she could spam the Brave Bow in New Resolve (the cost of which would be offset by the mass of weapons we buy with our new Silver Card). This would allow me to make 6400 G later on via the Hammerne Staff. However, Eliwood's Rapier is a decent alternative, giving nearly as much money (5250 G) and making Eliwood a lot more usable in the early chapters. Furthermore, it would get rid of the need to train Rebecca pointlessly; I would still use her a lot in the early chapters to siphon EXP from the rest of the team, but by the time Pirate Ship and other chapters roll around, it might be useful to dump her and throw in someone like Dorcas instead.

Note that Rebecca is indeed the optimal candidate for Brave Bow spamming if we decide to take that over the Rapier, as the alternatives are Wil (gross and joins later) and Rath (joins too late). Rath is slightly more viable in this playthrough since I've already got him some EXP in LHM, but at that point, we might as well just wait a couple chapters for Geitz, who starts off with B in bows. Still, it would be preferable to get the spamming done on Chapter 21, which makes Rebecca superior even here.

If you guys have any thoughts on this, feel free to let me know.

[ruadath]

Chapter 11

Finally, onto HHM! It's perfectly feasible to run the exact same strategy as last time for this chapter, but I decided to make some slight modifications to it.

Turn 1: Hand Axe!Hector and Matthew break down the wall.

Turn 2: Hector moves west of Matthew and kills (Hand Axe) the soldier from up close. Matthew moves west of Hector.

Enemy Turn 2: The archer attacks (and hits) Matthew from the SW.

Turn 3: Hector and Matthew both charge west.

Enemy Turn 3: The archer attacks Hector and gets hit back by the Hand Axe.

Turn 4: Matthew opens the door, and Hector moves 2 south of him.

Enemy Turn 4: The archer hits Matthew again. The thief grabs the Red Gem.

Turn 5: Hector heads straight east (below the door). Matthew kills the archer from above and gets his Vulnerary.

Enemy Turn 5: The soldier attacks Hector, misses, and gets killed by Hector's double with the Hand Axe. Both archers attack Hector, but he misses both of them on his counters, saving him valuable EXP gains.

Turn 6: Matthew steals the Red Gem from the thief, moving to 99 EXP. At this point in my previous playthrough, I had Hector simply attack Wire with Wolf Beil and let him get killed in the second battle on the EP.

This time, however, I burn 3 RNs before attacking, resulting in the following:

Hector unleashes the power of Wolf Beil, not for the last time. He also gets this sweet level

So compared to last playthrough, Hector got a few less EXP, I saved a use of Wolf Beil, and Matthew got one extra turn next to Hector (if that support ever pans out). Chapter clear!

[Paused]

On a different note, for some reason I am no longer able to access the page on Something Awful with Melth's FE7 run. Is there a view limit or something? If anyone knows something about this, I'd very much like some assistance with this, since Melth's guide was really useful for comparing strats, etc.

Paywall has gone up. There is a cycle where every so often parts of the SA forums become restricted to non members in order to draw people into buying an account. The paywall will be gone eventually, though it could be awhile; at least a few weeks I'd imagine. Outside of paying the $10, you'll just have to keep checking back to see if you're allowed access again, or keep an eye on http://lparchive.org/where it will eventually be uploaded and be permanently view able free of charge.

[ruadath]

On my last playthrough of Chapter 12, I obtained a nice 5 turn clear which I was very happy with (good levels, etc). However, before I rehash that strategy into this playthrough, I'd like to see if a couple of improvements are possible, namely:

- Clearing the chapter in 4 turns

- Clearing the chapter with less EXP; last time I got roughly 750/550 EXP thanks to the fact that most enemies in the southern half of the map needed t be 3RKO'd

There is a reasonable solution to both of these problem: use Marcus in combat and let him kills the boss. This is something I did not do last time; I simply sent Marcus to grab the Secret Book and then had the rest of the party do the fighting. Perhaps this time around it is Dorcas who should be benched instead?

Unfortunately, using Marcus and going for a 4 turn clear has a couple of drawbacks. These are:

- If Marcus is using his Iron Sword (which he probably will be) and Lowen is being used (which he definitely should be), then Eliwood won't have access to his Iron Sword.

- Matthew probably won't be able to make it down to the armory in time to sell the Red Gem or purchase an Iron Axe

Let me know what you guys think.

[ruadath]

Alright! I've achieved a 4-turn clear for Chapter 12, but got some pretty terrible levels for everyone except Hector (in particular, a Rebecca Luck only level). So I'm going to try and work on it. But at least we know it's possible now!

[FionordeQuester]

So Ruadath, as far as you know, does the 1 Exp. gained by Lyn in Chapter 9, and the 13 Exp. gained by Rath in Chapter 6 count as total experienced earned for the rankings? Not for the tactician stars, but for JUST the rankings? I ask because after going through Chapter 10, I got 10 Exp. above the S-Rank threshold, but about 7-15 Gold below it. However, when I calculated Exp. gained, I didn't include that 14 Exp. gained by Lyn and Rath, so does that count when we're not talking about the stars?

[ruadath]

I just checked, and it appears that it does not count for the overall rank either.

[FionordeQuester]

Mmm...ah! Well, no matter. I just beat it, finally, with a strategy that accounts for if you just want the White Gem, or if you want the full blown S Rank. And I literally, LITERALLY, did it just by the skin of my teeth on...pretty much every rank really. Gonna post that, soon.

[ruadath]

Chapter 12

Turn 1: Hector's team moves first. Serra moves 1 east, Matthew moves below her and trades his Red Gem to Oswin. That's right, since Matthew is stuck guarding Serra, it's going to be the slow Oswin who ferries the Red Gem down to the armory! But first, he has a detour to make. Oswin heads straight east and chucks a Javelin at the PK. Hector moves in and finishes her off with Wolf Beil.

Down south, Eliwood's team arranges themselves as shown. Since Marcus is necessary for the 4 turn, it'll be Dorcas who heads toward the village for the Secret Book.

Enemy Turn 1: A brigand misses Lowen and gets countered. Same with Matthew.

Not an amazing level, but there isn't really anything we can do about it. Most importantly, he gets Spd.

A PK attacks Hector and feels the wrath of Wolf Beil. Another PK attacks Bartre. A third one attacks Hector with similar results to the first one. The Hand Axe brigand gets a lucky hit on Hector, taking him down to 10 HP.

Yikes, that initial proc in Def was essential.

Two archers strike Lowen and Hector respectively to end the EP. 98/550 EXP

Turn 2: Marcus moves onto the eastern fort and kills the adjacent brigand. This sets up the next attack to be a critical. I had to figure out how to utilize this most effectively, and settled on having Oswin kills the archer near him from the west (Iron Lance)

This is useful because the archer makes life difficult if he stays alive by reducing Hector's combat ranking and favoring targeting Matthew over Hector.

Dorcas moves as close as he can to the village, Lowen attacks the bandit who attacked on the last EP from the south. Eliwood moves west of Lowen, takes Lowen's Iron Sword, and kills the PK below. Rebecca moves south of Lowen and finishes off the brigand.

Bartre moves 1 east, Matthew finishes off the brigand that attacked him, and Hector moves above the Hand Axe bandit, and takes out the PK below him with his Hand Axe.

Serra burns 1 RN (the only time we do this in the chapter), then heals Matthew. 263/550 EXP

Enemy Turn 2: The other PK that Hector injured on the last EP retreats SW toward Dorcas. A merc attacks Eliwood, a bandit and PK suicide on Marcus. A PK misses Hector and gets hurt by his Hand Axe (but importantly, not badly enough to enter retreat mode), and the brigand exchanges missed Hand Axe blows with Hector. The archer hits Lowen again, reducing him to 11 HP.

Turn 3: Dorcas visits the village for a Secret book, Matthew moves 2 east and Serra follows behind him. Hector moves south of the brigand and hits him with Wolf Beil. His position is important to aggro the remaining enemy PK from the east.

Eliwood and Lowen attack the enemy archer from below (sword) and the east (lance), respectively. Rebecca finishes the archer off from below Lowen. Bartre moves below Rebecca, and Marcus moves south off the mountain on the far east of the screen. This will aggro Zagan toward Marcus instead of Hector on the enemy phase.

Oswin moves straight south and chucks a Javelin at the retreating PK, killing her. 366/550 EXP

Enemy Turn 3: Zagan charges south, the enemy merc slices up Bartre, but his counter hits.

The remaining uninjured PK attacks Hector from below and gets reduced to 1 HP. The other PK suicides on Hector, giving him another level

No Str, but this is a great level otherwise, and no RN burns were required, so I'm keeping it.

The Hand Axe bandit misses Hector. 417/550 EXP

Turn 4: Last turn. Matthew kills the Hand Axe bandit, Eliwood attacks the merc, reducing him to 1 HP. Rebecca finishes him off.

Nice offensive level for Rebecca. The Res growth is a bonus.

Hector moves 1 west and kills the PK with his Hand Axe, which leaves Zagan as the only enemy. Serra heals Hector.

Oswin moves above the armory, then Lowen moves below him, takes the Red Gem, sells it, and buys an Iron Axe.

Marcus moves up and equips the Silver Lance. 527/550 EXP

Enemy Turn 4: Zagan attacks, but Silver Lance!Marcus is strong enough to ORKO him.

Chapter clear! (557/550 EXP)

Edited August 21, 2015 by ruadath

[Paused]

Very nice. Great optimisation.

[ruadath]

It seems I always forget to do this, but here are the stats after that last battle:

Name:     Lv.XP  HP STR SKL SPD LCK DEF RES    W/B
Hector:    4.49  22  9   4   8   5   10  0     7/19
Eliwood:   1.67  BASE                          1/4
Marcus:    1.41  BASE                          4/4
Rebecca:   2.00  17  5   6   7   4   3   2     3/3
Lowen:     2.32  BASE                          0/5
Bartre:    2.20  BASE                          0/2
Oswin:     9.26  BASE                          2/3
Dorcas:    5.08  32  9   8   6   3   4   0     0/0
Matthew:   4.74  20  5   5   13  3   4   0     3/6
Serra:     4.85  19  4   6   9   8   3   6     0/0

[ruadath]

I just loaded up Chapter 13 and noticed that, compared to last time, Serra and Matthew have (incoveniently) switched starting positions. Does anyone know what determines your starting formation here?

EDIT: As far as I can tell, it seems this is determined by the order of your units in Chapter 12, although I am not sure how this is determined. Furthermore, it appears that Hector, Eliwood, Marcus, Rebecca, Lowen, and Bartre all have their positions (and unit order) fixed, and that the variance is restricted to the units gained in Lyn Mode (Matthew, Serra, Dorcas).

Maybe that is the trick? Perhaps the turn order is inherited from Lyn Mode? I'll have to take a look and figure it out.

EDIT 2: After running a number of trials, this indeed appears to be the case, and my switched positions are the result of me stupidly deciding that it was unnecessary to take Serra to Chapter 9 and then adding her back in.

Edited August 21, 2015 by ruadath