Gergeshwan

First off, from what I can tell, we're not even disagreeing on the positions of the healers. Which means the only point behind this argument is a tier list philosophy disagreement (again), and there are more qualified people out there to argue that than me. So I'll stay out of the philosophy debate. But yeah, you could say I'm looking at the game through a dondon lens. Anyway, on to less subjective stuff... I'm 85% sure that it has to cost a turn. In order for Matthew to steal on turn 3, which is when Marcus can kill, he has to be 6 squares away from the boss's east side (closer one). That's only one square behind the farthest Marcus can be at that point, so he's going to get targeted by a Nosferatu shaman on Enemy Phase. That shaman will be in the way, preventing Marcus and Matthew from reaching the boss. Since Florina would have brought Matthew down in this scenario, if she could ORKO that shaman, then the path is clear to steal and kill. But with 21 HP, 4 def, and 17 atk that heals, that would pretty much require a crit. Soon. As in, maybe tomorrow, maybe two days. It's the next chapter in my playlog, so whenever I have time to record it.

2. A combat one from Erk/Lucius or even Canas and a primary staffer. Although I did forget about the stealable one in chapter 23 for some reason, so there's really no reason to wait that long. The primary healer can get promoted as soon as they hit level 10, whenever that may be. As for the first one off Zoldam, it costs a turn to steal. And if you want the Elysian Whip as well, then it should cost two turns, as Matthew would have to lag behind to steal the Whip.. It probably isn't that important, although the combat gains from waiting aren't a whole lot either. Even if they waited, you wouldn't want them to get attacked because they don't do a whole lot of damage. They would get an extra 3 HP and 2 defense from the early promotion to give them a buffer against getting OHKOd in case of a mistake, which should be enough. And even with spamming Physic, I still have a hard time seeing them hit 20 in the first place. Priscilla would definitely want to be promoted for Battle Before Dawn, which gives her those 6 chapters to abuse Physic. One of those only takes 2 turns (24) unless you end up dumping enough exp into the lords to take Linus's version. Since she's only been using Heal and Mend to that point, she's probably only level 7-8 before you get Physics. And if it's the difference between a 10/5 healer or a 15/1, there's not much of a difference there, except that the 10/5 had the extra move longer. If you go right up the middle, you can finish Darin, recruit Legault, steal the Member Card with him, and seize on turn 7. You could probably reach the shop faster by going through the left treasure room, but it would take longer to reach Darin then. Fair enough.

The 10/1 thing was actually directed towards my statement about Serra and Priscilla, not about Lucius. Anyway, while you probably could squeeze something better out with enough Physic spamming, there isn't a whole lot of time to get up to 20 before the next Guiding Ring comes in chapter 27. And you do want to promote as soon as you can for the extra move. Unless you take an extra 2 turns or so in chapter 20, Physics won't be around until the chapter 22 Secret Shop. That leaves 23, 23x, 24, 25, 26, and 27 to spam them for exp. Maybe something like 12/2 would have been more accurate for when Rescue shows up. Although it's not really important anyway, since this was supposed to be about Pent. As for Lucius vs. Erk, you can finish the chapter a turn before the soldiers move so you can recruit Lucius. Not sure how heavily you'd want to weigh that turn cost though.

Seconding Pent > Eliwood. It really takes a lot to get Eliwood going, and Marcus doesn't leave too many early scraps. Promoted Eliwood is nice, but getting him there after his poor bases will really take a concentrated effort to feed him kills. In addition to Pent's outstanding combat, Warp and Rescue are really important for bringing, say, Hector to the front. While your primary staffbot would probably have the rank to use them, a 10/1 Serra/Priscilla would not compare in terms of the range. Pent is most likely the best choice to deploy aside Hector in chapter 30, as Warp combined with his combat get Hector to the throne faster. Also, Eliwood could probably drop under a lot of people due to what it takes to make him useful. Certainly Florina, whose early flying is essential to 16 and 17x before anyone else can take part of the flying utility pie.

Yeah, skipped that Silver Sword. But if a 14/1 Raven can do it, that's only 5 more levels. Thanks for the tip. I didn't think of the 3 turn either, but Aquilae was nice enough to provide it. It doesn't really matter much since it's just Lyn mode, I just wanted to keep the same kind of mindset through the whole game so I didn't have stuff like 20/1 Sain coming out of there. Which would help if it's just HHM, but it would kind of feel like cheating. Chapter 19x 5/69 Turns http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sP16Z5aJJrg Notes I was trying to pull a 4 turn clear before I saw that the boss had 14 AS. 2:29- This is one square outside the boss's Bolting range. And that Bolting hurts. 7:32- Marcus does need to land these hits. Hector has to seize, and Florina wouldn't be able to do any significant damage. Unit Level HP Str Skl Spd Lck Def Res Support Hector 11.87 28 13 8 8 6 13 2 C Eliwood Marcus 8.41 36 17 18 12 12 11 10 Lowen 11.03 31 10 8 10 8 11 3 Kent 12.22 30 12 11 12 4 9 3 Sain 11.55 27 14 7 10 7 8 2 Raven 8.99 31 12 15 16 3 6 3 Priscilla 5.42 17 6 7 8 9 3 7 Florina 9.58 29 8 11 13 11 5 7

I wouldn't be too surprised. Most of what he does is self-improvement since he can't keep up very well (although apparently he's pretty important for 23x). I'd think there's a gap between him and Lowen, so probably an 8 or less. Could be wrong though.

Chapter 19 4/64 Turns http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQ2K-8KVw9U Notes 0:33- Hector hitting this guy is nice, but not too important. It enables Erk to kill this cav, who would have suicided on Enemy Phase anyway. The other enemies that attack Erk have 39 and 43 display, and only one of these three needs to miss. So if this cav is dead, Erk is guaranteed survival. 0:51- From this spot, Florina can take out the snag if the Pirate only has 19 attack. 3:55- At least one of these needs to go, because they like to gang up on Priscilla. I was able to kill both here because Erk didn't need to heal, but the normal plan was to have Serra heal her after one attacked, and Hector would kill that peg on the next turn. 4:51- I'm guessing (correctly) that Fiora would rather attack the weak cav than get countered by a Nomad, so Florina goes here. 6:06- Forgot to pull the Javelin out to counter. 7:14- As it turns out, it was really nice of Matthew to crit that Pirate. Sain wasn't supposed to miss, but fortunately Matthew was around to clean up after his blindness. 10:00- Sorry for all the delays in here, I completely forgot that Uhai moved first. So I was trying to concoct a way to keep everyone alive while wondering while I hadn't prepared for it. Which had already been taken care of, but I failed at remembering. 10:39- Marcus with one more strength would have really been useful. Uhai can proc an extra defense point, which means Marcus would have to try the Killing Edge and hope for a crit instead of helping his durability with the Silver Lance. Since it seems like getting the Silver Card will cost turns, I'll probably just skip it. There should be enough cash to spam killers and Physic, I'll just have to actually do some planning instead of random spending. I can spend all my cash on the secret shop, as there will be the Ocean Seal, White Gem, and Heaven Seal before it's time to buy killers. I'm probably also going to bite the bullet and go for a promotion with Rath. Raven needing some crits to kill in 23x was initially a little off-putting for me, but after what I pulled here with a lower success rate, I may as well go for it. And mine will have better stats too, which can't hurt. Unit Level HP Str Skl Spd Lck Def Res Support Hector 11.62 28 13 8 8 6 13 2 C Eliwood Marcus 7.17 35 17 18 12 12 11 10 Lowen 10.90 30 9 7 9 7 10 2 Kent 11.59 29 12 11 11 4 9 3 Sain 11.07 27 14 7 10 7 8 2 Erk 10.89 23 8 9 11 5 3 7 Raven 7.80 30 11 14 16 3 6 3 Priscilla 4.97 16 6 6 8 8 3 6 Florina 9.17 29 8 11 13 11 5 7 Serra 4.02 18 3 6 9 8 2 7 Oswin 13.34 31 15 10 6 4 16 4 Matthew 8.55 22 6 7 15 5 4 1 Dart 8.37 34 12 8 8 3 6 1 Forgot the video. That might have been somewhat important. <_<

Marcus really is that good. The entire first half (or more) of the game consists of Marcus blitzing as far ahead as he can and everyone else clearing his path or killing scraps. Though I haven't actually tried the game without Marcus, the amount of work he does means he saves huge amounts of turns. He saves at least one in 12, probably 3 or so in 13, probably at least 5-6 in 14 (whatever it would take to finish the rout in the rain, as Marcus can avoid it). Florina is likely more important in 16, but she needs to transport someone across to obliterate everything, and the best option is Marcus. 17 and 18 are more Marcus blitz, Marcus is the best choice for Uhai in 19 since he can kill on Turn 4 (still trying to get that recorded without messing up though). 19 and 20 are more Marcus, and to say Marcus already saved 20 turns by the time Ninian joins is probably an understatement. And he's still your best combat unit at this point in the game, so this pattern continues. Not that Ninian isn't amazing, but being in a ~20 turn hole compared to Marcus at jointime is tough to dig out of.

This should be interesting. Shopping will probably be a pain, especially for commonly spammed stuff like Javelins, but you could probably just clear out two units or so and get what you can. Or more, since there's plenty of leeway with Tactics it probably won't hurt you to send 4 or 5 units to shop if that's what you needed. Good luck with it.

Yeah, Marcus is destruction incarnate. Really great guy to have around. Everyone else can only clear scraps from his glorious blazing path. :D The reason Marcus gets bad levels with this patch is a bit tough to explain, but basically, it's not kind to units that start at level 1. The patch tends to round down, so the only thing most units get on their first level is HP. Marcus and Hawkeye both get speed at level 5 even though Marcus had to trudge through 4 levels to get there and Hawkeye just one.

I'm still debating if I want to grab Harken this time. It would cost an extra turn, maybe two if I didn't have a good enough plan there, but Harken and the Brave Sword would really help kill Valks in Cog of Destiny. Although at my pace, there's plenty of time to think about that yet. Wallace and Farina should help make up some ground though. Chapter 18 3/60 Turns http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQdHapWCBsA Notes 0:23- Marcus can handle this chapter himself except for 2 mercs that need to be cleared out of his way. This is the first one. 2:47- And this is the other one. With these gone, Marcus can rush the boss. Kent needs to land this one, because Sain is already occupied with rescuing him away from the Pegs. 3:03- Positioning Sain so he can't be attacked by more than one peg. 6:07- The first reason I gave Marcus the Icon. The second is Uhai. Unit Level HP Str Skl Spd Lck Def Res Support Hector 11.31 28 13 8 8 6 13 2 C Eliwood Marcus 6.07 34 16 17 12 11 10 10 Kent 11.18 29 12 11 11 4 9 3 Sain 10.78 26 13 7 9 7 7 1 Erk 10.13 23 8 9 11 5 3 7 Raven 7.16 30 11 14 16 3 6 3 Oswin 13.02 31 15 10 6 4 16 4 Matthew 7.76 22 6 6 14 5 4 1

Maybe the practice run was 9 turns and I managed to whittle it down at some point. It was last week, so I probably forgot. Chapter 17x 4/57 Turns http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raJXGlubtmM Notes 1:15- These two guys are going to attack Hector, just making sure they won't kill him. These enemies seem to hit a max of 26 and 25 attack, which comes out to exactly enough to kill Hector. Never saw them occur together, but that would be the kind of thing to happen in the recorded run. 2:59- It doesn't really matter what damage Oswin does to the boss here, the point is just to make sure his Steel Lance is out so Hector can ORKO. 3:40- This is why Hector was taking attacks earlier. 2 hits from Oswin would have killed him, but one of Oswin and one of Hector sets up a good kill for Kent. Unit Level HP Str Skl Spd Lck Def Res Support Hector 10.92 27 12 8 8 5 12 2 C Eliwood Kent 10.72 28 11 10 11 3 9 3 Raven 6.49 30 11 14 15 3 6 3 Priscilla 4.61 16 6 6 8 8 3 6 Florina 8.99 28 8 10 13 10 5 6 Oswin 12.36 30 14 10 6 4 15 4

If I need 6 turns to get Genesis, then I'll probably just take the 6 turns. Although I did forget that the previous Secret Shop sells Physics (along with forgetting Pure Water, which really killed the last run) so buying those will help. Between Physic and not giving Hawkeye both boss kills, 5 turns should be possible. As for Genesis... Yeah, probably won't have a promoted Rath. 6 turns probably isn't happening, but I won't skip it this time. Chapter 17 8/53 Turns Part 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rV_MGQ_oSU Part 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YKhF6NcQV4 Notes Kent used the Dragonshield. Since he's doubling, he'd be more inclined to face more enemies compared to Sain, and Lowen obviously doesn't need it. This may seem kind of sloppy and haphazard, but it was at least the 10th attempt and I was getting annoyed with it. I kept making mistakes and deviating from the practice run, which before this run were bad enough to cost a turn or get someone killed. I was a square behind with Hector here, but I was able to get him in seize range by delaying Marcus. 2:09- Making sure this archer won't kill Erk if he stands on the pillar. 3:27- Looks like I forgot to equip the Iron Lance. 5:27- This might be the cause of the problem that sets me behind at the end. I forgot about the nomad, so he didn't get countered. It still would have been fine if Hector hit him but... 5:44- He didn't. 2:53- For some reason, I thought Hector landed his hit. I think that's what I thought anyway. Really should have attacked here, there was a mad dash at the end when I saw that I didn't weaken this guy. 4:52- This is when I realized that Hector was a square short. 7:00- Plan A to free Erk to hit the thief fails. Attacking with the Javelin was not a good idea, but I was in moderate panic mode at this point and not thinking clearly. 7:09- Thank you Florina. That helped a bunch. Lowen would have been able to kill the thief blocking Erk, but Erk would have still needed to not miss, since he probably would have needed Thunder. 8:04- Massive trolling here from the game. I guess it could be worse, Lucius wasn't going to make it to level 10 for a promotion and C Staves anyway. But aren't they supposed to rush the throne room? What really annoys me is that they did in practice, but then blocked me in the recorded run. Unit Level HP Str Skl Spd Lck Def Res Support Hector 9.66 27 12 8 8 5 12 2 C Eliwood Marcus 5.27 34 16 17 12 11 10 9 Lowen 10.04 30 9 7 9 7 10 2 Kent 9.98 27 11 10 11 3 9 3 Sain 10.23 26 13 7 9 7 7 1 Erk 9.67 22 8 9 11 5 3 7 Guy 7.58 28 10 14 15 7 7 2 Raven 5.38 29 10 13 15 2 6 2 Priscilla 4.38 16 6 6 8 8 3 6 Florina 8.82 28 8 10 13 10 5 6 Matthew 7.66 22 6 6 14 5 4 1

Marcus got the icon because he faces crit twice when killing Zoldam and Uhai. Yeah, the 2% doesn't make much difference, but with all the cash around, selling it doesn't help much either. Thanks for the benchmarks dondon. Unsurprisingly, I'm a turn behind even with growths, but I actually figured there would be a bigger gap than there is when you got around to this.

FE4- Fixed RNG. 2 RN system might be nice, but at least changed so that it doesn't run out of RNs before generating more. FE6- Different victory conditions. FE7- No gaidens that force you to slow down to unlock them. (19xx mostly, but sort of 23x as well.) FE8- Weaken Seth. A longer game would be good too. FE9- Weaken Titania, and skills can be reassigned. FEDS- Only one warp staff. And for all of them, no desert chapter. I really hate those.

Chapter 16 5/45 Turns http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CClPm5vKXw Notes Marcus got the Goddess Icon he was supposed to get earlier. 1:29- Forgot to trade the Javelin up, so I had to sell the sword. Bit of gold lost, but it doesn't matter. 4:48- This is the square past the ballista range, so it's the closest safe spot for Florina. 5:35- Serra moves in to draw off a cav and make sure they don't combo on Erk. He really shouldn't have been there, I just wasn't thinking fast enough. 6:08- And of course, Merlinus was sitting there the whole time and could have done Serra's job just fine. I forget about him a lot. 9:28- Making sure the mage can't get to Hector. 9:31- I actually didn't notice the hit rate on this. I was going through these menus pretty fast, and since the cost of missing is a game over, this may not have been a good idea. I thought the hit would be in the 80s, but apparently not. Should have used a vulnerary and had Hector kill on Enemy Phase. Unit Level HP Str Skl Spd Lck Def Res Support Hector 8.41 26 11 7 7 5 11 1 C Eliwood Marcus 4.01 33 16 16 11 11 10 9 Lowen 9.27 30 9 7 9 7 10 2 Kent 9.31 27 11 10 11 3 7 3 Sain 9.23 26 13 7 9 7 7 1 Erk 8.70 22 8 9 10 5 3 7 Oswin 11.87 29 14 10 6 3 15 4 Guy 7.17 28 10 14 15 7 7 2 Priscilla 3.82 16 6 6 8 7 3 6 Serra 3.90 18 3 5 9 7 2 6 Florina 7.89 28 7 10 12 10 5 6 Lyn 7.21 20 6 11 13 8 3 2 Wil 2.78 20 6 5 5 6 5 0

Chapter 15 8/40 Turns http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnIDdkT67_Y Notes I left Sealen alive longer than he needed to be to spawn some more reinforcements. Marcus was supposed to use the Goddess Icon here to cut down on crit rates when he kills Zoldam and Uhai, but apparently I forgot to give it to him. He'll get it next time. Lowen's making better progress this run compared to the last one, which will be nice later on. 0:41- Checking to see if Erk can survive fighting these guys. He can't. 2:42- Normally, I try to have a contingency plan for this sort of thing, but I really didn't expect Matthew to miss. Fortunately, I did it early enough in the turn to protect Matthew with other units. 4:25- Not a good time for that Marcus. He was supposed to weaken for Erk to kill. Instead, I had to do some dicey unit juggling relying on poor odds for Hector to hit. Lowen should have been able to survive if Hector missed, I had Erk available to trade his lance up, effectively nullifying the sword guys. Unit Level HP Str Skl Spd Lck Def Res Support Hector 7.40 25 11 7 7 5 11 1 C Eliwood Marcus 3.60 32 15 16 11 8 10 9 Lowen 8.61 29 9 7 9 6 10 2 Erk 8.28 22 8 9 10 5 3 7 Oswin 11.59 29 14 10 6 3 15 4 Matthew 7.12 22 6 6 14 5 4 1 Guy 6.51 27 9 13 15 6 6 2 Priscilla 3.49 16 6 6 8 7 3 6 Eliwood 2.97 19 5 5 7 7 5 0 C Hector

Chapter 14 5/32 Turns http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kqnqvpbc3tM Notes 1:54- The crit was nice but not necessary, Lowen could have killed him. 2:40- Checking to see if Marcus doubles them with a Javelin, and he does. If he misses some, this just ends on Enemy Phase instead of Player Phase. 4:05- Marcus occasionally kills Erik here, but it's nice to give Lowen the kill when he doesn't. 5:24- Annoying, but he isn't hurting much anyway. 5:32- The boss, on the other hand, needed to go. A miss would have been quite bad here. This scenario doesn't even arise if Marcus ORKOs him, but since that didn't happen here, Lowen needed to land this. 6:11- Timely, but unnecessary crit. He would have gone for Matthew anyway, not Lowen. 9:25- If the pirate had hit Guy, Dorcas would have rescued him instead of trying the chip. Unit Level HP Str Skl Spd Lck Def Res Support Hector 6.75 24 10 6 7 4 10 1 C Eliwood Marcus 3.34 32 15 16 11 8 10 9 Lowen 7.36 28 9 7 9 6 9 2 Erk 6.82 20 7 8 9 4 3 6 Oswin 11.00 29 14 10 6 3 15 4 Matthew 6.67 21 5 6 14 4 4 1 Guy 5.28 26 9 13 14 6 6 2 Dorcas 5.62 31 8 7 6 4 4 0 Bartre 2.62 29 9 5 3 4 4 0 Serra 3.89 18 3 5 9 7 2 6 Eliwood 2.86 19 5 5 7 7 5 0 C Hector Rebecca 1.22 17 4 5 6 4 3 1

Chapter 13x 8/27 Turns Part 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiMMe93ZU_s Part 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ySNKKur7s8 Notes 2:46- This miss could have been quite bad, as I didn't have a plan prepared for it. But Hector was fortunately around. 5:13- Finishing the nomad with the Javelin did reduce accuracy, but it was more important to keep Lowen there to block than to ensure a hit. 9:09- I could have done this better, since Mattew did risk a death chance. But the bandit only had 19 display, so it wasn't too bad. The real issue was... 9:18- Since Matthew decided to miss, Dorcas had to land this. Dodging 19 display seemed reasonable, but dodging the nomad as well would have been too much. 0:24- Guy was supposed to be able to double at least one of these, but with the RNG the way it was in this run, it didn't happen. Although if he had landed his first hit he still could have killed one. As it was, he got stuck simply walling them off. 8:37- I actually can't figure out why I thought I needed to kill this guy, but I probably would have been better off saving the Silver Lance use. Unit Level HP Str Skl Spd Lck Def Res Support Hector 6.35 24 10 6 7 4 10 1 Marcus 2.80 32 15 15 11 8 10 8 Lowen 5.40 26 8 6 8 5 8 1 Oswin 10.40 28 13 9 5 3 14 3 Matthew 6.08 21 5 6 14 4 4 1 Guy 4.24 25 9 12 13 5 6 1 Dorcas 5.61 31 8 7 6 4 4 0 Bartre 2.22 29 9 5 3 4 4 0 Serra 3.78 18 3 5 9 7 2 6 Eliwood 2.26 19 5 5 7 7 5 0 Rebecca 1.10 17 4 5 6 4 3 1

Him being doubled by a lot does really limit his usefulness, but at least he still whacks stuff with axes for good damage. Chapter 13 6/19 Turns http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFgjqmiRuV0 Notes 1:05- Hector can't always OHKO this cav, but if he can't, Bartre can weaken it first. Oswin is around too if Bartre misses. 2:52- The crit was nice, but if Marcus didn't kill this cav, it would have suicided into him on the next Enemy Phase. 4:24- Lowen was able to kill this guy in the practice runs, so I had to adjust this a bit. At least this section was just self improvement. 7:10- I botched this trade. The goal was to clear out Dorcas's inventory for shopping, but I mixed them up. I should have been clearing Bartre's inventory, as he was the one who hadn't moved. 8:09- This was an annoying miss as it cost Lowen an extra kill. This one was a lot better than my old clear. I also managed a 5 turn clear, but I wasn't able to recruit Guy since he didn't want to move before Turn 5, and no Guy would probably cost more than the turn I could save here. Unit Level HP Str Skl Spd Lck Def Res Support Hector 5.45 23 9 6 6 4 10 1 Marcus 2.26 32 15 15 11 8 10 8 Lowen 4.11 25 8 6 8 4 8 1 Oswin 9.48 28 13 9 5 3 13 3 Matthew 5.61 20 5 5 13 4 4 0 Dorcas 5.38 31 8 7 6 4 4 0 Bartre 2.21 29 9 5 3 4 4 0 Serra 3.12 18 3 5 9 7 2 6 Eliwood 1.60 18 5 5 7 7 5 0 Rebecca 1.00 17 4 5 6 4 3 1 Guy 3.00 25 8 12 13 5 6 1

Chapter 12 5/13 Turns http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12NYJOrfTu0 Notes 0:55- This miss was moderately annoying, as it meant Oswin and Hector would have to combine for the kill instead of one killing the archer. Guess that's what I get for being stingy with Wolf Beil uses. 6:02- This was a bit of a risk, but the bandit did only have 24 display. Matthew was supposed to be at full health for this, but it ended up working out. 6:48- I'd like to attack the pegs here, but they run away if weakened. Which is annoying, because I did have a 4 turn planned if they suicide like many enemies do. Unit Level HP Str Skl Spd Lck Def Res Support Hector 5.15 23 9 6 6 4 10 1 Marcus 1.42 31 15 15 11 8 10 8 Lowen 3.30 24 7 5 7 4 8 0 Oswin 9.23 28 13 9 5 3 13 3 Matthew 5.26 20 5 5 13 4 4 0 Dorcas 5.29 31 8 7 6 4 4 0 Bartre 2.20 29 9 5 3 4 4 0 Serra 2.90 17 2 5 8 7 2 6 Eliwood 1.10 18 5 5 7 7 5 0 Rebecca 1.00 17 4 5 6 4 3 1

Chapter 11 8/8 Turns http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpZjqB6EQk8 Notes 0:31- A combination of Matthew and Hector has to kill this archer. If Matthew procs strength, then there are no issues. If he doesn't, as is the case here, the archer can't have 5 defense, which is uncommon but could happen. 1:46- Normally, Hector needs a point of strength to 2HKO Wire, although he did end up on the low end defensively and actually could be 2HKOd at base in this particular runthrough. I didn't want to abuse that though. 2:31- Just checking to see if Matthew can take a hit from this archer, as luring him in and attacking gets me a level. The enemy stats actually fell in a way on this run that would allow me to get a 7 turn without a crit on the boss, but it's an unlikely combination. Matthew needed to kill that first archer on his own, which meant a 3 defense variant, and Hector had to be able to 2HKO the boss at base. He would miss that archer kill and be unable to level up before taking on the boss. I chose to follow the practice run pattern and not abuse it, but the option was there. Unit Level HP Str Skl Spd Lck Def Res Support Hector 3.76 21 8 5 6 3 9 0 Matthew 4.09 19 5 5 12 3 3 0

Since I managed to forget to buy pure waters and Barrier isn't going to be enough to go around, I've given up on getting a decent completion out of Cog of Destiny. Everyone kept getting statused and swarmed into oblivion. And giving the boots to Florina instead of Hector or maybe Pent for warping is going to cost me in the next chapter. Considering there's a lot of stuff I didn't do so well on, I'm going to restart from square one with some new planning in place. So, as a checklist of things I need to plan for this time around: - Train Florina. If Florina can get to the point where she has decent combat, she'll make things a lot easier, even if it ends up not saving many turns. - Buy Pure Waters in Chapter 21. Mainly so I don't stall out at this point again, but they could serve some uses elsewhere. - Try to manage exp better. I now know I won't need to train Eliwood, so that frees up a chunk. I still could probably find kills Marcus took that someone else can without turn expense. - Fix the chapters that took too many turns. - Try for 23x. Just so my stance on Gaidens doesn't contradict itself. - Record videos this time. It saves typing and would be a lot easier to understand anyway. Lyn mode this time around was improved a fair bit. I saved turns on Chapters 5, 7, 9, and 10, and also managed to get Florina up a bit in level. Kent took the Energy Ring this time. Erk was quite useful with it, turning into a ORKO death machine, but I'm hoping Kent can do the same thing with better move. Prologue- 5/5 Chapter 1- 5/10 Chapter 2- 4/14 Chapter 3- 5/19 Chapter 4- 8/27 Chapter 5- 3/30 Chapter 6- 4/34 Chapter 7- 2/36 Chapter 7x- 5/41 Chapter 8- 5/46 Chapter 9- 5/51 Chapter 10- 5/56 Unit Level HP Str Skl Spd Lck Def Res Support Lyn 7.21 20 6 11 13 8 3 2 Kent 8.59 26 11 9 10 3 6 2 Sain 8.61 25 12 6 9 6 7 1 Florina 7.75 28 7 10 12 10 5 6 Erk 6.35 20 7 8 9 4 3 6 Dorcas 4.72 31 8 7 6 3 3 0 Serra 2.67 17 2 5 8 7 2 6 Matthew 3.67 19 4 5 12 3 3 0 Lucius 3.68 18 7 6 10 2 1 6 Rath 7.43 25 8 9 10 5 7 2 Wil 2.78 20 6 5 5 6 5 0 Wallace 2.76 35 15 9 8 10 17 5 Nils 2.61 15 0 0 13 11 5 5 These video updates will probably come even slower than my normally slow updates, but I might have Chapter 11 at least up tomorrow.

Chapter 28x 15/159 Turns Unit Level HP Str Skl Spd Lck Def Res Support Hector 19.36 36 18 12 11 8 17 4 C Eliwood Kent 7.01 42 16 18 19 6 14 7 C Sain Sain 5.41 45 21 12 15 11 11 4 C Kent Raven 6.42 46 19 21 22 8 12 7 Ninian 8.88 20 0 0 17 16 7 9 Pent 11.05 36 20 22 19 16 13 17 A Louise Florina 4.03 36 11 12 16 12 7 10 Hawkeye 8.71 52 20 15 12 15 15 11 Heath 11.09 35 15 11 9 8 12 3 Jaffar 13.03 34 19 25 24 10 15 11 I'm still debating if I want to keep this or not. I think 15 is pretty decent here, but I didn't exactly practice to perfect this. Pretty sloppy run overall, but it got the job done for the most part. Hector, Kent, Sain, Pent, Hawkeye, Raven, Florina, Heath, Fiora, and Ninian were deployed. Florina used the boots. I figured since she's mostly ferrying people around anyway, it would yield the greatest benefit there. This is always an interesting chapter with all the status staves and long range attacks. The main plan in the early stages was to neutralize as many of these as possible. Hawkeye Hand Axed an archer on the nearest island, got a dance from Ninian, then ran up and killed the sniper. Heath took out the last archer there, which removed the threat of the ballista. Florina flew down and took out one of the Bolting mages. Kent and Sain rescued and dropped Ninian out of the range of the pegs, and Raven positioned himself to take them out. On Enemy Phase, the pegs got killed and Raven weakened the falcoknight. The two Bolting mages killed Nino, and Florina took a hit from the sage next to them. I'm going to apologize for lack of detail in here, because with all the stuff going on, I'm having trouble remembering what happened when. Maybe I should have done a video run instead, it would be a pain to upload with my pathetic connection but I wouldn't miss a bunch of this stuff. Anyway, Pent used Physic on Florina, who then killed the Silence sage. Fiora grabbed Pent, got danced, then dropped him on the island where with the mages. Heath took out a second one of those. Florina got hit by Sleep on Enemy Phase. Pent useded the Rescue staff to bring Ninian over, who then danced him so he could heal Heath. Florina had to wait to get Restored, but when the bridges expanded and the Berserk bishop became a factor, she was needed. He managed to hit Fiora, and I needed Pent to Restore a sleeping Hawkeye first, so she flew off. Florina did manage to get the Berserk bishop with her killer, but Fiora ran into nomad reinforcements and got killed. This time it really shouldn't matter, as I've got Vaida coming and Heath ready to promote. And this chapter is now behind me, which was the most likely one for massive flyer use. Hawkeye used Ninian to get to the island with the Generals and the Speedwing chest. There wasn't a need to open it, since a thief will come along and I can kill him for the treasure. Florina moved on to the Sleep bishop, and since the Sleep druid broke his staff, I was pretty much in the clear on those long range threats, meaning it was time to push for the boss. Heath went back and grabbed Sain, while Pent broke the Rescue staff to grab Hector. Florina then went back to grab Sain, as he was my best shot at Sonia with his massive strength and a Brave Lance. Kent got to sit back and kill all the northern merc and later peg reinforcements. Hawkeye got all the shamans to suicide on his Hand Axe and weakened the druid. On Turn 13, I moved Hawkeye and Sain into Sonia's range. Florina was carrying Hector at this point, as Pent didn't have time to heal him and he couldn't take a Bolting shot. If he could have been dropped here, this would have been over on Turn 14. Sain took the Bolting hit and killed the wyverns that came after him. Raven, Heath, and Pent stayed back and were killing reinforcements from the stairs. Hawkeye attacked Sonia with his Killer, but he failed to crit both times. Not that it mattered, because Sain's quadding with the Brave Lance was enough to deliver the kill. Hector got dropped, the chest was looted, Raven killed the thief, Pent healed to get a level, and Hector seized. Would anyone actually be interested in a video run? There are a few chapters I did pretty badly on that would make a new run several turns faster, and more foresight of what I need to happen could only help. And I won't have to worry that I might have omitted some important stuff, like I'm sure I did here and will do again in the hectic chapters to come. It would be really slow to update though, as I'm running out of days to even get this first one done.

Chapter 28 16/144 Turns Unit Level HP Str Skl Spd Lck Def Res Support Hector 18.68 35 17 12 11 8 16 4 C Eliwood Marcus 12.36 38 18 20 15 11 11 12 C Lowen Priscilla 1.91 22 10 10 10 12 6 12 Lowen 3.02 41 13 11 13 12 16 6 C Marcus Kent 4.14 40 15 16 17 5 13 6 C Sain Sain 3.55 44 20 12 15 11 11 4 C Kent Raven 4.04 44 18 20 21 7 12 6 Ninian 7.36 19 0 0 16 15 7 8 Pent 8.78 34 19 21 18 15 12 16 A Louise Legault 12.75 29 9 13 17 10 8 4 Another one with no turn shaving, so there won't be too much detail. Hector, Marcus, Kent, Sain, Lowen, Pent, Raven, Priscilla, Ninian, and Legault were deployed. Marcus used the Speedwings before the start, and Sain and Priscilla promoted. With the 3 Swordreaver fighters, Jaffar not dying does take some luck. It gets dicey when the first one hits, as it can leave Jaffar open to a second one and some other enemies without triggering him to use an Elixir. On the successful run, he survived until I could get my paladins down there on Turn 4. But first, I had to get past Maxine (or whatever his name was, close to that.) He can have 17-18 AS, meaning Lowen gets doubled regardless and Sain may get doubled. Priscilla started by unlocking the door, then Ninian danced Kent ahead with his Killer Lance out. He didn't crit, but this one was the 17 AS variant, so Sain was able to fight him safely. He landed a crit and took the kill. They rushed down to Jaffar and then Sain continued on to Zephiel, stemming the soldiers that got in. The rest is pretty unimportant. I got all the chests, 3 with Legault and one with the help of an enemy thief. Raven, who came down the right side, rescued Zephiel because he wasn't doubled by Ursula's Bolting. Other than that, it was basically self improvement. The lax pace is nice considering the chapters coming up.