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

[ruadath]

One solution to the dilemma of supports for Chapter 15 would be to dump Serra (and Dorcas) and bring along Priscilla and Erk instead. Then I get all of Eliwood, Priscilla, and Erk to build supports, not to mention another mount. Serra doesn't need to hit B in staves immediately; I can either deploy her in another chapter, or simply have her use a Torch staff later on, which will immediately push her up to B (and be able to use Physic). This might end up being what I decide to go with.

[Sniper Knight]

Go for it. I've never really tried too hard to build supports on efficiency runs before, so that would be pretty cool to see. Just remember that a Torch is 100G per use.

[ruadath]

Just remember that a Torch is 100G per use.

Right, but I meant that she'll be using this on Living Legend (where I need to staff spam anyway to meet the ridiculous EXP requirement). That chapter has a good chunk of surplus gold if I pick up all the treasure IIRC.

[Sniper Knight]

About Living Legend- I'm doing a draft right now, and I was planning for Serra to get EXP from Torch spamming in that chapter, but it didn't have Fog of War. I assumed that I recalled incorrectly, but apparently I didn't. Any clue what's happening?

EDIT: Aaand FE wiki says that FoW is only on HHM. This is one of those increasingly common situations where I'd rather be on Hard Mode.

Edited August 28, 2015 by PanneKnight

[Paused]

Desert maps continue to find new ways to annoy players.

[ruadath]

So anyway, I still haven't decided whether or not Lowen should get a level in Chapter 15. The deciding factor will of course be if that allows for a 4-turn clear of Chapter 16, which sounds fairly plausible: the strategy would be that Florina drops Lowen across (Marcus rescues) on the first turn and Priscilla/Dorcas grabs Hector so that Florina and Lowen can advance forward and drop Hector in time to mop up in 2 more turns. I'm fairly confident Eliwood, Erk, and maybe someone else can clear out the west front in 4 turns, and that Ly's group can clear out their front as well. Therefore, the only question is whether or not this leaves me with enough EXP, and I think it just might (but I'm not sure).

EDIT: Actually, forget this! Not skipping the initial cutscenes reduces the Spd of both the archer and the mage to 5, so I should be fine keeping Lowen out of the action.

Edited August 28, 2015 by ruadath

[ruadath]

Sorry it has been a while since the last update. I've done some test runs of Chapter 15 without Dorcas, and while it seems possible, it is rather annoying since Rebecca has to hold the fort by herself for the first two turns while Marcus goes boss hunting. I think the opportunity to build up Eliwood/Hector, Erk/Priscilla, and Lowen/Rebecca+Lowen/Marcus is worth it though.

I also realized that, with the exception of the mage, Oswin doesn't need to kill anything at the top of the map, which saves him EXP (I don't really care much for the loss to the combat rank, since I'll pass it anyway).

EDIT: Never mind, I think I'll take Dorcas instead of Eliwood. I don't really see Eliwood/Hector getting much further since it'll take at least another 25 turns or so, Eliwood isn't deployed very often (especially if I decide to go for Lloyd instead of Linus for LTC purposes). On the other hand, Priscilla is pretty much guaranteed for every map from now on (except for like 17x and the Berserker), and Erk will probably get used until he gets replaced by Nino (maybe).

Edited August 30, 2015 by ruadath

[ruadath]

OK, so after way too much trouble, Chapter 15 cleared again, bringing along Erk, Priscilla, and Eliwood. That's right, no Dorcas. I'm too lazy to post a playthrough, so just the standard summary: both Vulneraries were stolen, along with the lockpick and the contents of each chest. Rebecca shot her bow a lot and got 15/50 WEXP to B in bows, which I'm happy about. I have screen shots of the starting formation, and Rebecca and Marcus's levels:









Why did I promote Sain again? Also, unlike last time, Matthew didn't level because he had one less EXP and therefore ended on 5.99 instead of 6.00. Oswin also didn't level because he blocked without weapons instead of killing things.

Name:     Lv.XP  HP STR SKL SPD LCK DEF RES    W/B
Hector:    6.44  24  11  4   9   6   12  0    12/30 (C support Eliwood)
Eliwood:   4.15  20  8   7   10  7   7   0     8/16 (C support Hector)
Marcus:    4.03  34  18  18  13  10  12  10   31/56
Rebecca:   7.16  20  10  10  11  8   3   3    20/30
Lowen:     5.16  26  10  7   10  6   10  0     6/29
Bartre:    5.63  32  12  6   6   5   5   0    10/21
Oswin:     9.89  BASE                          6/19
Guy:       4.85  24  9   13  14  6   6   2     4/12
Matthew:   5.99  21  5   6   14  4   5   0     3/13
Serra:     5.85  20  5   7   10  8   3   7     0/1
Dorcas:    7.23  34  11  8   7   3   5   0     8/17
Erk:       2.10  18  5   6   7   4   2   4     2/2
Priscilla: 3.00  BASE                          0/0

Edited August 31, 2015 by ruadath

[ruadath]

Alright, so I decided I might as well at least give you a text playthrough of Chapter 15, there just won't be any screenshots. I actually ended up with a slightly different playthrough from last time, so I'll post stats again at the end of this:

Turn 1: Matthew moves next to Lowen, Lowen rescues him and takes him as far around as he can (Javelin equipped so he doesn't aggro enemies), Hector moves above Lowen, grabs Matthew and drops him north. Eliwood takes a step down, Priscilla moves a step north, Rebecca fires at the wall, and Marcus kills the western of the two Knights with his Axe.

Enemy Turn 1: Sealen attacks Marcus, the other knight suicides on Marcus, several ranged enemies attack Marcus, and the nomad misses Rebecca and gets countered.

Turn 2: I burn 5 RNs, then Matthew steals the Vulnerary from the mage. Priscilla rescues him and moves one step west, Oswin kills the mage with his Steel Lance, and Erk deequips him from above Priscilla. Rebecca takes a step down and doubles the soldier, crit-killing him on the second shot and hitting level 6. She also gets to C in bows. Eliwood moves SW of the throne, and Hector rescues him from the west.

Marcus kills Sealen from above with the Hand Axe, then Lowen rides in to trade equip him with the Iron Axe, and then moves 2 north.

Enemy Turn 2: The remaining knight suicides on Marcus, and he gets attacked by a couple of ranged enemies. The fighter breaks down the wall, a merc and nomad double Oswin for no damage, and the western nomad hits Rebecca but gets killed in the counter.

Turn 3: Another few RNs are burned, then Rebecca attacks the archer from the west, dodging his counter. Marcus takes a step west and kills the Javelin man, and Lowen takes his place (west of Marcus). Hector de equips himself (trades weapon to Eliwood), Priscilla drops Matthew 2 north 1 east of Rebecca, and Erk moves next to Priscilla. 3 more RNs are burned.

Enemy Turn 3: The archer attacks Rebecca, misses, and gets killed. The fighter whacks Hector, the merc scratches Oswin, and the mage blast Rebecca from up close. The other archer hits Marcus, and the nomad attacks Oswin again. The thief opens the door to the treasure.

Turn 4: Matthew steals the Vulnerary, 3 RNs are burned, Rebecca kills the mage from behind Matthew, Marcus and Lowen rescue drop Matthew into position to rob the thief of his Lockpick on the next turn. A few RNs are burned

Enemy Turn 4: The usual occurs. The nomad misses Rebecca

Turn 5: Matthew steals the Lockpick, Rebecca kills the nomad, Marcus and Lowen rescue drop her just outside the fighter's range. Rebecca gets a different level up this time.

Enemy Turn 5: The archer suicides on Rebecca

Turn 6: Matthew gets Mend, Rebecca attacks the fighter.

Turn 7: Rebecca kills the fighter. Marcus kills the thief for his Silver Axe.

So I ended up giving up the awesome Marcus level (he didn't level) in favor of giving a couple more kills the Rebecca so that she hit 19/50 WEXP. Let me know if you guys think this was a good decision or not, and if you would prefer me to take the other playthrough (or modify this one so that Marcus gets the good level).

Name:     Lv.XP  HP STR SKL SPD LCK DEF RES    W/B
Hector:    6.43  24  11  4   9   6   12  0    12/29 (C support Eliwood)
Eliwood:   4.15  20  8   7   10  7   7   0     8/16 (C support Hector)
Marcus:    3.95  33  17  17  12  9   11  10   29/53
Rebecca:   7.54  20  10  10  11  8   3   3    22/33
Lowen:     5.16  26  10  7   10  6   10  0     6/29
Bartre:    5.63  32  12  6   6   5   5   0    10/21
Oswin:     9.89  BASE                          6/21
Guy:       4.85  24  9   13  14  6   6   2     4/12
Matthew:   5.99  21  5   6   14  4   5   0     3/12
Serra:     5.85  20  5   7   10  8   3   7     0/1
Dorcas:    7.23  34  11  8   7   3   5   0     8/17
Erk:       2.10  18  5   6   7   4   2   4     2/2
Priscilla: 3.00  BASE                          0/0

Edited September 1, 2015 by ruadath

[Brinzy]

Don't mean to bother you, but where did you find the Tactician script you posted about here?

EDIT: I found the post... now how do I use it?

EDIT 2: I realized I did not have the right version of VBA, so now it's taken care of. I mostly wanted to see how off the Funds rank I was. Upon closer inspection, I apparently have been failing counting stuff properly... the script says I have 149 more experience than I counted. Oops.

... but this is your topic. So, back on topic:

Can't help but notice that Rebecca is a significantly higher level than before if I recall. Is this to ensure you get B rank?

Edited August 31, 2015 by Brinzy

[ruadath]

Sorry, I didn't get to respond to this quickly enough, but it looks like you've figured it out, so it's all good!

Can't help but notice that Rebecca is a significantly higher level than before if I recall. Is this to ensure you get B rank?

Yeah, basically. I had her take almost all of the kills this level, and she went from 35/40 WEXP to rank C to 19/50 to rank B. This is great, because even though she could have probably easily made it without giving her everything, this means I can deploy her in less chapters. In particular, I'm thinking of switching her with Guy for Chapter 16, since Eliwood and Erk (and Matthew) might need some help clearing out the west side of the map in 4 turns, and Guy probably won't get deployed again for a while (at least until Dread Isle)

On a different note, Melth's LP is back online, and I saved all of the pages onto the internet archive, so we can now access them anytime, regardless of whether or not paywall is up!

[ruadath]

Chapter 16 is looking tough and I don't think I'll have it done by the end of tonight. On the first turn (enemy phase) there is an opportunity to get Lowen the same excellent level that he obtained at the end of Chapter 14. However, doing so is rather tricky, because he has to connect 6 different 70% Javelin shots, and some additional RNs need to be burned via either Guy or Matthew leveling up. So far I haven't been able to do it, but I have managed to obtain a level up with HP, Str, and Skl, so I might just end up settling for that.

[ruadath]

Sorry for the lack of updates for a while. Chapter 16 is progressing fairly nicely, and I think the 4 turn clear now certainly looks doable, but I think I might change up my strategy a little bit and drop Erk for Bartre. The reason for this is that Erk is 2RKOd by everything on the map, and therefore after turn 1, I ended up needing to have Marcus rescue him to prevent him from dying. Due to the fact that I'm blitzing the chapter, I can't really afford to position him behind a defensive formation like I normally would, so I think I might just drop him here for Bartre, and bring him along again in Chapter 17, where he'll not only have more time to rack up kills, but will probably fair better against the knights.

Edited September 3, 2015 by ruadath

[ruadath]

I finally got a 4 turn clear of Chapter 16 that I thought would work... only to discover that I ended up 6 EXP short... I'm not really sure how I'm going to proceed from here, but hopefully I can find some way to get the extra 6 EXP. I suppose having Priscilla Mend instead of heal would make up 3 of that EXP, but there is probably a better way to go about doing this.

[ruadath]

Finally, it has been achieved! 4-turn clear w/ 1100 EXP, both villages visited and Lockpick stolen. I'll probably get around to making a post within the next day or two.

[ruadath]

Team: Hector*, Eliwood, Marcus, Lowen, Matthew, Erk, Priscilla, Guy

Not too much to say here; I need all of my mounts plus Matthew to steal the Lockpick. That leaves me three free spots, from which I chose my lowest leveled units (Erk, Eliwood, and Guy) for fastest EXP gain. They also all happen to deal relatively low damage, which means more EXP from multiple rounds of combat. In addition, Guy will probably get benched for a reasonably long time after this chapter, so this will be a good place to get him some EXP for later.

Preparation

All Hector needs is Wolf Beil. Matthew, Guy, and Eliwood need to take the three swords; I had Guy take the one with the most uses since he'll be using it the most. Matthew also should take a Vulnerary, Priscilla a Heal staff, and I gave Marcus and Iron Axe so things wouldn't attack him. Lowen takes both Iron Lances and a Javelin. Eliwood shouldn't have any items on him that can get stolen.

Also, I don't skip any of the intro cutscenes in order to have certain enemies (the archer and mage) spawn with low enough Spd/Def so that Lowen can double ORKO them with the Javelin.

Formation

I chose this formation before Paper Jam tested that deployment choices don't affect support growth, but whatever. It ended up working out for me.

Turn 1: Hector moves 2 south, equips Wolf Beil, and talks to Florina. Lowen moves above her, swaps his Javelin for hers, and equips her with the Iron Lance that has less uses. Marcus rescues Lowen and moves directly east, then Florina takes him from the east, drops Lowen east (Javelin equipped!) and retreats west of Marcus. Priscilla rescues Hector, and everyone else moves down like this:

Kent stops off at the Vendor and buys a Door Key and another Heal staff, then moves west. Sain trade-equips him with his Iron Lance, then cantos above him. Wil burns 3 RNs and moves west of the vendor, and Lyn visits the eastern armory and buys an Iron Lance.

Enemy Turn 1: The Steel Sword merc misses Erk and gets blasted by Thunder. This is followed by the myrmidon attacking Lowen. A merc attacks Kent, and another attacks Erk, who misses his counter. A PK attacks Florina, and another attacks Eliwood, who misses one of his two counters. An archer, mage and PK all attack (and hit) Lowen with ranged weapons, get doubled, and die. Lowen gets a dropped Fire tome from the mage, and the ballistae misses Lowen too while all of this is going on.

You'll notice that Lowen has been dropped to 8 HP here. This may look like a sticky situation, but Lowen's high Def, plus the fact that he will be on a fort next turn means that he won't really have too much trouble surviving. Even better, his low HP will distract the ballista from Florina, which is great since it lets her roam the map freel without getting worried about being smacked for ~15 damage!

Two PKs strike Wil with Javelins, but lose a sizeable chunk of HP from his counters with a bow. Wil won't be seeing much (or any) action beyond this chapter, so it's good to have him sink up as much EXP as possible. He also is at a reasonably low level of 3, which means he gains a good amount of EXP here.

Finally, Eliwood's advanced position serves its purpose by aggroing the enemy thief. He takes a scratch for 1 damage, then counters. 175/1100 EXP.

Turn 2: Guy circles around the Iron Sword merc (the one east of him) and doubles him from the east, dodging the counter. Kent then moves 1 north, 2 west and attacks a merc. Priscilla moves west of Florina, and gives her Hector

One of the useful things about the Give command is that it lets you perform another action from the same spot! So Priscilla gets a chance to heal Florina the damage she took from the PK, which is good since she won't have any more access to healing after this turn. Florina moves east of Lowen, gives Hector to him, and then moves one more space east. Lowen charges onto the fort, equips his Iron Lance, makes sure Hector is equipped with Wolf Beil, and then drops him east.

Erk moves east of Priscilla and crit kills the PK below him. Eliwood finishes off the merc that Guy attacked from the north, and then Wil moves 2 east and 2 north and kills the southern PK that attacked him. Choosing the right one is important, since the northern one will retreat on the enemy phase, while the other one (that we killed) would take out Wil if left it alive. Matthew then burns 4 RNs and robs the thief of his Lockpick:

Yay, Str for Matthew! Marcus moves SW of Eliwood, Lyn burns 3 RNs and moves west onto the forest, and Sain moves west of the myrmidon. 324/1100 EXP

Enemy Turn 2: The injured PK retreats up north, but not out of the range of Wil. The Steel Sword merc pursues Erk and attacks him again; they both miss each other. Another merc misses the unequipped Sain, the myrmidon suicides on Florina, and then two mercs and a myrmidon all attack Kent, resulting in their HP being reduced to single digits. A PK attacks Priscilla

It appears that I have been able to keep neither one of my healers out of combat. Oh, well. Two cavs attack and miss Lowen on the fort, and get doubled down to sub-5 HP. Another pair of cavs attack Eliwood and Matthew, taking minimal damage and dropping Eliwood to 4 HP, before 2 more Steel Sword cavs attack Hector, who hits both of the counters. The ballista and mage both miss Lowen, and the thief suicides o Matthew. 502/1100 EXP.

Turn 3: Kent kills the myrmidon to the south of him, the Eliwood takes a step east and kills the PK with two strikes, dodging the counter. Priscilla moves down a space and heals him, then Lowen kills the ballista archer from the south, hitting C in lances. I burn 2 RNs, and then Florina takes out the cav east of Hector from below.

And Florina's first HHM level is an excellent one! Guy moves west of Eliwood and attacks the cav.

Def is quite rare for Guy, so I'm very happy to trade a point of Spd (which Guy will easily cap anyway) for this level. I burn one RN, and then Erk moves above Priscilla and finally finishes the Steel Sword merc he has been dueling for the past few turns. Hector charges east and crit-kills Bauker. He could have easily ORKO'd him with a double as well, but saving a WB use is nice. Also, he gets a perfect level:

Finally, some Skl/Res growths for Hector! Needless to say, I'm very happy with this. I burn 6 more RNs and the Wil finishes off the retreating PK.

Lots of levels! Lyn moves below Kent and de-equips (gives Kent her Mani Katti), and Matthew moves 1 south, 3 east (in position to aggro the newly spawned brigand) and uses a Vulnerary. Marcus and Sain remain stationary. 786/1100 EXP.

Enemy Turn 3: A merc suicides on Kent

Meh. One of these levels was bound to be bad. Another merc does the same, and then one of the northern cavs retreats and uses a Vulnerary. Another couple of cavs suicide on Florina, then the brigand misses Matthew. Another brigand misses unarmed Lyn, as does a merc with Sain, and a pair of cavs attack Matthew:

The mage attacks Lowen

Thankfully, he just barely has enough HP to take the hit. 934/1100 EXP.

Turn 4: Florina flies up and attacks the cav, hurting but not killing him. Erk charges down south and takes out the 2 HP cav

Erk's slow start continues, but at least he proc'd some offensive stats. I burn 3 more RNs, then Eliwood takes out the brigand.

Not bad, not bad. Wil crit kills the merc, I burn one RN, and then Lowen takes out the mage. Another RN is burned, then Lyn grabs her Mani Katti from Kent and crit kills the brigand. Sain and Marcus put themselves to good use by visiting the villages for a Heavy Spear and Red Gem, respectively, the Guy kills the remianing western cav. This puts us at 1095 EXP, so Priscilla heals someone and that pushes me over the top.

Hector seizes to clear the map! Finally, done with this chapter! 1106/1100 EXP.

[ruadath]

Looks like I forgot the stats again...

Name:     Lv.XP  HP STR SKL SPD LCK DEF RES    W/B
Hector:    7.40  25  12  5   10  7   13  1    13/32 (C support Eliwood)
Eliwood:   5.22  20  9   8   10  8   8   0    11/22 (C support Hector)
Marcus:    3.95  33  17  17  12  9   11  10   29/53
Rebecca:   7.54  20  10  10  11  8   3   3    22/33
Lowen:     6.96  27  11  7   11  6   10  0    11/41
Bartre:    5.63  32  12  6   6   5   5   0    10/21
Oswin:     9.89  BASE                          6/21
Guy:       5.27  25  10  14  14  7   7   2     5/15
Matthew:   7.13  23  6   8   16  6   5   0     4/17
Serra:     5.85  20  5   7   10  8   3   7     0/1
Dorcas:    7.23  34  11  8   7   3   5   0     8/17
Erk:       3.31  19  6   6   8   4   2   4     5/8
Priscilla: 3.34  BASE                          0/1
Lyn:      10.36  24  12  15  16  10  5   1     1/2
Sain:      1.02  34  21  10  19  12  13  3     0/2
Kent:      6.36  24  10  9   11  3   6   2     3/8
Florina:   5.70  21  9   11  13  10  5   6     4/6
Wil:       4.44  22  8   6   7   8   6   0     3/5

[Paused]

Scrapping through with just 6exp over the target. These updates must take so much time to optimise.

[ruadath]

Yeah, this chapter was pretty painful to do, even just to reach 1100 EXP! I just barely pulled through as well; the only additional EXP I could have obtained using the strategy above was to let Matthew gain some chip damage on the cav that Guy killed the last turn, which probably would have amount to 13 or 14 extra EXP. So yeah, I think the max I could have gotten would have been 1120 or so. Perhaps with some better positioning, Kent could have chipped as well (on Lyn's kill) for another 9 or so.

I'm looking forward to completing Chapter 17, though, since I will have a large number of turns available; it's not possible to grab all of the items without taking at least 10 turns.

[ruadath]

I'm probably not going to get to Chapter 17 for some time, but in the meantime, let me may say something about the team I'm going to deploy. I'm certainly taking the following 8/10 characters:

Hector*, Marcus, Lowen, Matthew, Priscilla, Sain, Kent, Florina

which is basically explained by the fact that I need all of my mounts to clear this quickly (and to recruit Raven) and Matthew to get treasure. For my remaining two spots, I'm choosing from the pool of

Erk, Oswin, Bartre

since sword/bow users won't really cut it here, and I don't need another healer (and Bartre is a lower level than Dorcas). Oswin is probably a guaranteed spot, since he can withstand the attacks from the SW corner reinforcements without any trouble, which means I'm really choosing between Erk and Bartre here. Last time, I chose Bartre, but I think Erk's significantly lower level might mean I go for him here, in addition to the fact that using him here would really help with getting Kenneth over Jerme.

What do you guys think?

[Brinzy]

It's true that Erk will help you get towards Kenneth, so that's a definite plus. On the other hand, I remember that you wanted to recruit Karla. Do you think Bartre needs the early levels to help you get Karla?

[ruadath]

I think I should be able to manage Bartre's growth without too much of a problem. He's got plenty of time before he needs to be level 5 promoted, and he'll certainly get to at least level 10 or so by Chapter 25 or so, where I can promote him and let him gain a few more levels after that. So I don't think not choosing Bartre here would be that big of an issue. Besides, he only really has the chance to gain about one level worth of EXP here, so it's not even a significant loss for him.

[Brinzy]

Then Erk it is!

[ruadath]

A quick note (that I also added to the Chapter 14 playthrough): the fact that I got Hector/Eliwood C support in Chapter 13x actually turned out to be essential! Without it, Hector would not have had enough Def to take 0 damage, and the nearby merc would have preferred to attack him over Lowen. IIRC, he would have missed, meaning that Eliwood and Rebecca would not have been able to finish him off on the next player phase, which would have been quite troublesome!

[ruadath]

Another couple of updates for this playthrough since it has been a while since I last posted here:

I'm planning to (hopefully) make more progress on this during the weekend. People have finally convinced me (and I can't believe I was stupid enough not to realize this) that burning up the Brave Bow is not a good idea, since Hammerne is better used on Warp/Restore near the end of the game. Therefore, I will probably be going back to Chapter 15 and taking the run which gave me the "good level" for Marcus, keeping Rebecca's level low (since I no longer care about her reaching B bows), perhaps for use in Pirate Ship. She is basically going to be treated as a "Dorcas" from now on. Chapter 16 should still be the same unless I decide to take Matthew's level in Chapter 15, in which case there will probably be minimal changes.