Redwall

The mere existence of more options (assuming they exist in FE to begin with) doesn't necessarily demand more computing power; from what I understand, what matters more is how promising the competing options are (see the Wikipedia articles on quiescence searches and the Shannon number). Decision-making in FE largely boils down to quickly killing enemies while not letting your own units die, whereas decision-making in chess is generally more complex (something on which we seem to agree) due to the pieces interacting in non-trivial ways, so for this reason, I think a computer would require more floating-point operations in your chess example than in your Shadow Dragon example (iirc, Shadow Dragon Wi-Fi is just five v. five, no?).

I don't understand the comparison. Are you comparing the calculations involved in LTCing a Fire Emblem game (say, FE9) to those performed in a single chess game against, say, an average player?

Most of the math relevant to Fire Emblem (what is an average; central limit theorem; binomial/multinomial distribution) is covered in first-year college classes. In contrast, you can't play chess well without many years of study.

You can just make a backup using the recently released 3DS update.

Growth rates aren't everything. FE7 enemies are weak enough to allow Marcus to remain dominant for more or less the whole game, and FE11 enemies tend to be vulnerable to effective weaponry. The labeling of the Jagen/Oifey archetypes as such is a vestige of the outdated school of thought that prizes growth rates above all else. FE12 Arran is indeed a bad unit, but it is not just because of his bad growths; the enemies in FE12 Lunatic are just too strong for him to keep up, while someone like FE7 Marcus can get by on boss kill EXP.

If you're planning on just buying one or two, then prioritize the Zeldas (Link's Awakening, Oracle of Ages, then Oracle of Seasons, in that order). Also consider Mega Man 3.

Etrian Odyssey IV. It's hard enough to keep you on your toes, but not so hard as to make you throw your 3DS at the wall. Really solid RPG imo.

While FFT vanilla had a few grammar fails, what little I've seen of WoTL is much more painful imo; maybe you should check out some YouTube footage of both games to see which you'd prefer.

His growths aren't as big a problem as his non-existent weapon ranks (outside of staves) imo. I assume we're talking maingame utility since no one has brought up caps.

Everyone reading this topic needs to get off SF and check out these two. Nao. [spoiler=Some of my favorites from them]

Yeah, I'll probably want to forge some hit on another Dragonpike...my Avatar sees only about a 66% displayed hit against the two Fire Dragons at the beginning. And I think they have 18 AS, which wouldn't be that big a problem if I had trained a Swordmaster (instead I chose to train Draug [male reclass limits enforced], who gets OHKOed at 14/2 Horseman lol).

Forged Celica's Gale and a couple of Dual Attacks should be enough to get past Dragonskin.

You're not recruiting Morgan? Seems like he's worth the one turn his Paralogue takes, especially for Ch 21.

Thanks for the feedback; I'll keep going without the Maturity Drop and see where that leads me. I actually got access to the Wi-Fi store (and the other freebies) yesterday on a North American DS Lite, so I don't think it's region-locked. Though I suppose it's also possible that the previous owner of my cartridge already downloaded everything. Shrug.

I got this game in the mail a couple of weeks ago and have been slowly making progress. I'm at Chapter 12 right now and Marth is looking a bit weak: 13 Spd at Lv 12, with his other non-HP stats around that neighborhood. I've been loathe to use the Wi-Fi stuff since, well, I'm old-fashioned. If I continue progressing at a semi-efficient pace without the Maturity Drop, will Marth be too weak for Medeus? I'm saving the Ch 9 Speedwing just in case he's too slow, and I assume there are at least a few other Speedwings in the upcoming stages, so I'm hoping I won't need to bust out the Maturity Drop (which doesn't sound like a huge boost, but which might make all the difference; I dunno).

There's a fine line between guessing someone's intent and putting words in his or her mouth. I have repeatedly pointed out that although he wasn't intentionally being rude, Olwen's refusal to own up to his words is deliberate, and he is aware that this continues to offend eclipse.

As you yourself pointed out, it is immature of you to continue to hold a grudge against eclipse; why, then, are you still going on about her comment? eclipse is trying to help you. Zeem is trying to help you. I'm trying to help you. Can we at least agree on that?

Oh, I forgot you had Levin Swords. I'm not so sure I understand your problem, then. If you can reliably clear out the beginning enemies with virtually no chance of death, and with Counter being manageable, what exactly is stopping you from rushing the entire level with the Levin Sword Avatar (presumably allowing you to either skip the reinforcements entirely or get in position to handle them comfortably) and fielding a bunch of other units (Sumia, Cordelia, Lissa) exclusively for ferrying Chrom around for the two recruitment events, and possibly picking off any remaining enemies?

Have you simply tried forging a Steel Sword or Killing Edge? With a 14 Mt sword, a Str Tonic, and the A rank, every non-Pavise enemy save for the Wyverns will be OHKOed by your 28 Str Avatar. With an additional +3 Str Pair Up, the Wyverns will also get OHKOed. The only skillset that would seem to pose a problem is Counter+Pavise, which has only a 5% chance of occurring if skills are distributed evenly. Using Sumia or Cordelia to ferry the Avatar to a good rout spot on turn 1 can probably clear up a lot of operating room; only several enemies near the starting point have 1-2 range.

Assuming that she adopted that argument form could have had any number of unintended consequences, with one of them being the implication that you believe her to be a soccer mom (I suppose in light of the fact you know her to be a college student, this is somewhat less likely, though still possible). Reading the posts again, another possible unintended consequence is that she may have felt you were oversimplifying her argument, and that her argument was more nuanced than that. Regardless, her reaction suggests that she was offended, and that your attempted summary of her argument may not have been what she was thinking. eclipse has asked you not to assume what she is thinking; I don't think it's productive to continue with that assumption.

Somewhat ironically, Pair Up discourages teamwork. It needs to go. Seize objectives are generally the most challenging; if Pair Up goes away, then I'd love to see Seize stages return.

eclipse has taken responsibility for calling you a chauvinist pig. Although you obviously meant nothing by your post, there wound up being unintended consequences: namely, eclipse feeling hurt. Now that you're cognizant of those consequences, denying her an apology for presuming her to be a soccer mom (when she may or may not even have kids; I wouldn't know, and I'm not going to guess) is a deliberate attempt to spite her.

When you presumed eclipse to be a soccer mom, you obviously meant nothing by it. However, eclipse made you aware that you hurt her feelings. By continuing to deny her an apology, you are deliberately allowing her feelings to remain hurt. Do you see the difference?

Doesn't matter. When people read posts like that, they will in general feel belittled regardless of what your intent was. The solution is not to say, "your feelings are irrational, these are the feelings you should experience." So what if she is? I can cite plenty examples of you being a hypocrite. That doesn't mean you're not deserving of an apology when someone wrongs you.

FF3 (DS) was a bit boring for me. It's kind of grindy due to the way the job system works. The graphics were pretty nice, though. FF5 (GBA) is totally awesome; no storyline whatsoever, but the gameplay is totally fluid, and there's some interesting postgame stuff I never finished. FFT is also a lot of fun, though not as tactical as the title implies. The writing's pretty good, too. Don't get the PSP remake; the script will quite honestly make your eyes bleed.