Eltosian Kadath

I am more nervous about sending Jakob on the offensive when he is the only one that can heal, and use the Freeze staff currently. Do you have a plan for getting a second healer? Good thing you tested that when you did, while you still had the chance to remove skills from him. With how careful you are being this run, I bet you are going to make it through this ironman (assuming you plan well for endgame itself...) I find Niles does well against the mages on this map (although setting up a good enemy phase for him is a bit cumbersome). Getting more comfortable using dual-strikes is a valuable skill to hone in Conquest. They really do have a really fun support, barring the staggering awkwardness of the S support. Then again S supports with Elise are always uncomfortable...

I was suggesting they share the same mother, and simply had different fathers...

There is one circumstance that wasn't considered for Conrad, which would resolve the whole male heir issue; Conrad being Celica's half brother, and Lima isn't the father. There is nothing that stops a married woman from bearing a known bastard...

Marth was the leader of the War of Shadows, while Jagen had always been a knight whom simply followed orders. Jagen transforming into an advisor akin to the mysteriously absent Malledus off screen, while Marth reverts to a child like incompetence in no more egregious than Kris showing he is competent enough to be included in counsels of war part way into the game. Why would Marth listen to someone he don't really know, just like that Tomas character you emphasized earlier? The only way Draug has more than a cursory interaction with Marth is if Jagen is dead in Shadow Dragon (and even then it isn't much), and Gaggles gets even less (and most of it while gagged). Marth actually interacts with Kris, and more than a handful of times. You should try paying attention to the DS Archanea games' stories when you play them, you might notice that Michalis doesn't "shits on whoever regardless of capability (unless you're Maria)". One of the first and most major interactions we see from him is him being respectful to Gotoh due to his capabilities, and most of his shit talking is well deserved by those that get it. He insults Minerva for her naiveté, for she is naive, he insults many as traitors, when they are, and if he insults Marth its only for his youth (although how insulting Whelp is, is debatable). At least try and understand Marth's arc in New Mystery before failing to dunk on it (or are you just trying to bait like that). You might dismiss his sister's so called dis, but she is hitting on a key aspect of Marth's arc, that he has placed upon himself an impossible burden that no one could possibly live up to, while everyone else is isolating him on the pedestal of Hero. Marth is his harshest critic, if someone falls in battle he feels the loss all the more due to the responsibilities of leadership; and when men call him hero king he think not about his own accomplishments, but those of his friends who made him a hero. Elice cares about her brother, and when she tells Kris about this weakness she is trying to make Kris into someone that can look past the title of hero, and could become a friend to Marth. In the end they do become close friends, as Kris helps Marth in way he never knew he needed, and in the end helps him to accept that when people call him Hero King, it was never about who Marth was, or what Marth did, or even what other did, but about what his people needed. We already saw what an Archanea game without Kris was like, it was Shadow Dragon, where most were lucky to have a single line and all that potential was utterly wasted. Kris gave all the minor characters at least a small chance to be seen, a chance for that potential to shine, which is a lot more than they had before Kris entered the picture. You like pointing at FE15 as how it should have been handled, but Gaiden's cast is much smaller, and when FE15 came out they had better technology and a larger budget to work with. Having Kris as the easy fall back to give characters someone to support off of let them create approximately 4 time the number of support chains than Echoes had for the Archanea cast to work with. Kris didn't shaft the cast of FE12, nor squandered their potential, but the lack of a Kris sure did in FE11. Then why didn't FE11 flesh out the cast? There was no Kris to "dominate the dialogue" when that game was made, and Elice is entirely in character when she trys to help her brother in ways he wouldn't want her to. You are looking at that game through rose colored glasses. For every moment of excellent writing like chapter 17 there are numerous (I put the first 5 examples I could find below, but I could keep going if I wanted to...) where someone talks to utterly silent and unmoving face of Marth and acting like the prologue of Shadow Dragon was important is a joke, if it was it would have been available on every difficulty like New Mystery's prologue was, instead of just the easiest.

Luring him into the water for the evade drop is rather clever. If I bother with Ryoma I tend to active the dragon vein so I can lure him close enough to grab the kill with Corrin, although I can see why you wouldn't risk trying to pull that off in an ironman. I think Xander gets a little too much flack for his unwillingness to kill or depose his father. Those are some extreme acts that are hard to take against a loved one, even if they do deserve it. If you are going for the Maligknight Elise this is the way to do it...this is going to be an interesting run, as Maligknight Elise is fun to use. I find she works rather well as a Great Knight even latter into the game.

Yes, Marth does look incompetent there. Marth is also a war veteran, and Jagen is just commanding his lord (not advising, Jagen is giving out commands here, to Marth) like he doesn't understand the most basic politics or battle plans. Plus the whole battle plan sounds more like a plan Marth would make than Jagen. And New Mystery added a whole 8 chapter prologue where Kris proves themselves to be the most competent of the new recruits, and meet with Marth, and even then it takes something like 8-9 chapters after that before Marth knows and trust Kris well for him to be giving out advice. ...let me just put a quote from the Michalis support here In both of those supports they acknowledge that Kris is canonically supposed to be competent, but they aren't really worshiping him. Perhaps it went over your head, but all Nagi was doing was recognizing (and acknowledging in universe) that Kris is an avatar for the player...

Jagen does. Check both the scripts, Jagen is giving the orders, and makes Marth look like an incompetent leader who can't even come up with something incredibly basic (and in character for Marth specifically) like I should try talking to the enemy leader that I personally know... Read through the dialogue, Marth is in control of that conversation Jagen brings up some valid concerns, Marth specifically asks for a plan from his advisors to solve this issues, and he agrees with the advise, and is the one to give the orders to set the plan into motion. Marth is the one giving the orders and in control of that situation, and is willing to delegate, all signs of a good leader. The only way for Norne to exist in FE11 (outside of hacking her into the game) is to have too many characters die in the prologue of the easiest difficulty mode. Even in the unlikely event that you saw her, the only line she has in the entire game is her death quote: “Heh… Oops…unnh…” Even her character ending adds little to her utter lack of character: The Volunteer – Norne Her stint as a warrior over, Norne returned to her home in Altea and lived an unremarkable but happy life. If FE12 butchered her its only that the made her an actual character that always existed in the game... ...few characters do "worship" Kris, who are you claiming does?

By being both the main character and an Avatar, they force the negative aspects of an Avatar into the main character of the entire story, whereas Marth is still around in FE12, and still the main character... And adding anything is better than the other Avatars do for their games. Jagen literally does that in Book 2 chapter 1. I am sure I could dig through the script for more, but the very first chapter of Mystery of the Emblem book 2 has Jagen stealing a clear moment of competency from Marth. And it instead show Marth being this thing called a competent leader. And that is more a problem with the new character (at least for those that don't intentionally suck at FE11 normal mode...) Faye Norne, not specifically with Kris...plus there are multiple entire school classes of characters that worship Byleth and Corrin isn't far behind with the worshipers, so only having one sounds far less awful...

People treat Kris like they are worse than Corrin or Byleth, when Kris is a lot closer to Robin than either of those two. Kris even does some extra good by acting as a brick wall for characters that otherwise get no lines or personality to support off of to give us some idea of who they are. There Kris is adding things to the cast of New Mystery with their bland wall like presence. ...so Kris is Jagen from the original Mystery of the Emblem, whom was always there to butt into all of Marth's big personal Lord moments, but isn't playable and was really boring...Kris may have taken a couple of Jagen's lines, but only because they are taking over part of the same obstructive role in the story that Jagen had (and Kris didn't even steal Jagen's single cool moment, when he confronts Lang). Whether it's Jagen or Kris taking that role, that was always a part of the Mystery of the Emblem book 2 story, and Jagen is the only one Kris was ever taking thing away from. What characters from Mystery of the emblem are these metaphorical Mae, Kliff, and "other" supposed to be? Who even got enough lines in Mystery of the Emblem book 2 to even fit these hypothetical roles?

Oh wow, yeah Birthright is winning by a lot, which does seem a little weird. I was expecting it to be high up there, just not winning by a solid 10 points... The only game where forging has ever really been an important or core mechanic is Shadow Dragon (and mostly due to some really questionable design decisions that make forged effective weapons so potent). I rarely bother with it in most of the games where it is available, unless I want to just goof around. As for Fates in particular, its most useful when you are really messing around with class changes, and need some forged bronzes to keep from suffering from getting stuck in an E rank in new classes. I think you are underestimating the difficulty of some of the HHM maps, especially when you are playing like you might ironman it. You should try a soft ironman of HHM, and see how you feel about it then. Plus I think a part of the Birthright difficulty rating is taking the notion that you can grind if you need to into account (whereas you can't with blazing blade...)

Just because this is seen as more common in women, does not mean there aren't men who don't do it, or that it is less common in men. I think you are worrying too much about how masculine you would be perceived. Don't worry so much about it, the most masculine thing you can be is confident in who you are. This is something you like to do, so do it with confidence, and don't let someone shame you out unjustly.

Cong rates Sooks. Funnily enough I have playing a bit of Pokemon recently too, as I stumbled upon a file for Pokemon Black that I prepared for a six Smeargle challenge, but for some reason stopped after the first route. Its been rather fun, and I have been tempted to talk about it here already thanks to my main special attacking Smeargle, Kaga. I have the tendency to name each Smeargle after a different aesthete from different mediums of art, so there is (Shouzou) Kaga, (Stephen) King, (Nicola) Pisano, (John) Williams, (Jean) Metzinger, and Sophocles. So far I am up to Clay's Gym, but I can do a rundown of the others Gyms for funsies. Actually this is kinda long, so into the spoiler box it goes. Glad you are liking it. That poor little game never seems to get the love it deserves thanks to all the Berwick and Jugdral fans diverting attention away from it. I know I am guilty of that as well despite how much I like this game. I agree with you. Its a tough chapter, but you can break through the line of ballista, and once you breach the perimeter, the rest of the enemies (barring the boss himself) is fairly doable. Although that boss is tough to take down...

It really feels like adding more enemies is what Birthright Lunatic is all about, but on the other hand the Lunatic mode of the other two routes ends up adding enemies two, they just tend to add less than Birthright does (and have other noted things those Lunatic modes add to enemies instead...) That is a lot of reclassing planned if you are trying to get a force of Kinshi in Conquest. I guess there is some access thanks to Selena, Azura, and possibly Corrin, but those are a lot of hoops to jump through... From what I remember you started getting a couple of them the chapter before... ...sigh Fates... I think this is a case of little kids call all flying things of about the right size birds... In all honesty, the only way she is interesting is if you assume that she is manipulating Corrin towards her own ends. It fits surprisingly well in Conquest and Revelations... That sounds kinda interesting...I may have to attempt this map without one turning it (despite how easy it is to do so...) someday.

Well done. I distinctly remember getting effectively trapped by those reinforcements when I was playing Lunatic Birthright. I found a way to take out those enemies that are starting on the flanks by fully committing my forces in both directions. It was a really tense moment where I had to find some way keeping that pressure up on both sides turn after turn, as my forces are whittle down faster than I can heal them, and find some way to keep my formation from crumbling to the point that they can skewer my squishies, hoping the end of the reinforcements was in sight...It was by far the tensest part of the map, as I found a way to deal with the entraps easily enough thanks to dances and rescue staff. I doubt you will have any trouble. Even in Lunatic Xander is a joke in Birthright, that you actively have to avoid fighting if you want there to be a map... To be fair, if you are going to build a secret entrance/exit to your castle, the royal family is the one group of people that should know about it...

Roland

I kinda hope that is the case, cause that gameplay footage looked like it had a lot of hilariously terrible game potential, especially with the right LPer. Not sure if it hits the incredibly high bar of Lucahjin's LP of America's Next Top Model on the Wii, but potential none the less.

This might sound a bit random, but I get the funny feeling you might like a six Smeargle challenge. Its a Pokemon challenge run where as early into the game as you can you hack the game so you can get the six Smeargle you will use for the rest of the run. From then on you can only use the Smeargle in battle (although you can still have HM slaves in your party to progress through the game). All of Smeargles stats are terrible except speed, but what makes the run so interesting is Smeargle's personal move, Sketch. Sketch lets your Smeargle permanently learn the last move an enemy used, and Smeargle learns Sketch again every 10 levels (and Smeargles can't learn any other moves from TMs or level-ups), so it becomes all about finding way to steal moves good enough that your team of terrible painter dogs can overcome their terrible stats with crafty strategies.

I think its just that they scaled all of the paralogues with the Conquest level curve in mind. Enemy levels are noticeably higher in Conquest than in the other two routs for the same chapter... Figured I would add my two cents to this commentary on the difficulty of Han's chapter. I always consider this chapter a notable difficulty spike in Birthright, which heralds the endgame. If your troops can't hit the right numbers to deal with the highly defensive, and highly offensive enemies on this map, it is just plain frustrating. I figured Alastor's paralogue grinding got his troops strong enough that it just wasn't an issue at all... I wonder if his team is strong enough to weather the storm of the opening of next chapter without worrying about how tight the numbers are...

And to think. the Conquest version is even dumber... With Fate's track record on world building, I doubt they fleshed this out either... Never have a spare turn or two where the action dies down a little, or is this a I completed every chapter in under 9 turns thing. You are acting like its a monumental task to have someone you dance when your dance use isn't critical that turn... To be fair Alastor did use multiple child paralogues just to grind up his troops, so they were probably higher level than yours were, and better able to deal with the hoards...

It takes 9 dances to cap support points for a map, and 7 maps (two of those maps only requires three dances to reach the next rank, and one only requires 6 dances, and she has a fast support with Corrin, so even less required for that one) to reach S rank, and there are no restrictions like needing the stats to survive combat, or needing one to be injured to gain support points. You must be playing very fast if you can't afford a total of 48 turns of Azura dancing someone over the course of the game (and that is assuming you don't have some incidental adjacent combats to speed it up, or that the unit you are supporting is never useful enough to be the best option for her dance...). Plus random MyCastle events can push it even faster. You could argue its relevant to FE6 as well, as the accuracy and critical values in that game (combined with the heavy skewing of the 2RN system) can make those bonuses very relevant, although they build very slowly... This is sounding an awful lot like things Kaga did in Tear Ring Saga as well, and its gameplay is more similar to FE than Berwick Saga's is. Although if you don't emulate it probably wont be an option for you...

Saias

? Its really easy to grind up Azura supports, its one of the easiest characters to quickly build supports with if you want to, just spam the dance option...

Probably less, they are still an avatar which earns a lot of hate, but the complaints about Kris stealing lines, or not belonging wouldn't be there...

Its not all that rare, many of the games have at least one married pair in them. I guess they have become less common in modern FE. I think I will try to list them, but I suspect I will miss some, and its a topic that can easily be branched out with various technicalities... For the married playable pairs, FE3/12 has Est and Abel; FE4 has Quan and Ethlyn; FE5 has Glade and Selphina; FE6 has Zelot and Juno, as well as Astolfo and Igrene (although its complicated...); FE7 has Pent and Louise (of course); and FE9 has Calil and Largo. If we expand our search to fiances as well, Clive and Mathilda are fiances in FE2/14; and Isadora and Harken are fiance in FE7. If we include characters with spouses that aren't playable, we can add Alois, whom starts married in FE 16, the FE10 version of Calil (as Largo was cut from FE10, but is still seen alive and married), Canas has an off screen wife in FE7 (he talks about her in the Canas-Nino support), and Dorcas is married to the NPC Natalie in FE7. If we expand to widowed characters FE6 has Bartre was married to Karla before her death, FE5 has Galzus whose wife died (and he fathered a daughter with her), FE7 has Hawkeye who is a widower (its talked about in his Louise support...), and Gunter from FE14 I could keep expanding this to characters described as lovers but I am feeling a bit lazy (although Astram and Midia; Merric and Elise; Lena and Julan; Anna and Jake; Ena and Raijaion; Tatiana and Zeke all immediately come to mind, and I am certain there are far more...) or non-playable characters that are married (Eldigan and Ghranye; Blume and Hilda; come to mind, and I know for a fact this list could be expanded a LOT ), or those presumed married due to the presence of children/grandchildren (Niime, Dayan, and Douglas come to mind)

Not overly historical really, at least in the war, and time period they were representing in that film. The original premise of British (and its not impossible there were American as well) "military advisors" being sent with some of the military equipment being sold (like the gattling gun they bought) may have been a thing, but there is no evidence of one going native, and the notion that the more samurai focused side wasn't actively using firearms of their own was ludicrous. Japan acquired firearms shortly after the Portuguese arrived, and they were manufactured in Japan ever since (although the smaller scale conflicts of the more peaceful, and unified reign of the Tokugawa made the sword a more practical weapon). There was one battle in that war where the more samurai focused side wasn't actively using firearms, it was after days of rain storms, where their older more traditional firearms got too wet to fire, whereas the more modern guns the other side had were better protected from the elements and were still usable, and it was a disaster for the side without firearms. Random side note, I always found it ironic that the heroes were watching a puppet show at the start of the scene where the Ninja attack, as the ludicrous black uniform they wear was a cliche that started from Bunraku puppet shows, where the stage hands that aided in the play all wore black, and if there was a stock Ninja character they would be a stage hand, which would be shocking as the watcher are actively ignoring them. As for China being more open, if so not by much, and only by a few years. Both were very isolationist during the European age of exploration, with very limited and restricted trade, until the Europeans opened them with force. I suppose China's trade restrictions were less severe in that their foreign trade port was open to Europeans other than the Dutch (and at times there were two of them), but not by much. China was forced open in the Opium wars where the Chinese attempt to crack down on the illegal opium trade that Europeans traders started peddling as a way to avoid to bypass some of those trade restriction, with the Europeans winning the first of those wars in 1842, whereas Commodore Perry would force the Japanese ports opened by threatening to bombard the capital in 1854.