XeKr

Worth repeating. If people like it/want to buy it, then it's fine. It's literally a figurine.

To clarify, my Avatar is named Avatar. But maybe she should be named Veteran. [spoiler=Chapter 9: 4/50] I don’t really see a way to reliably 3 turn this while still recruiting Libra. The main issue is Chrom is paper, so the area needs to be nearly completely clean for Libra to recruit himself on turn 2. That’s not easy in itself, clearing a safe place for Chrom, but then there also seems to be too many enemies spread out around the bottom to finish on Turn 3, including the stationary boss. Plus, some of those enemies are Killer Bow Archers, leaving Frederick to be the only competent fighter to clean most of that up. Alternatively, it is possible to aggro this bottom right group with Frederick Turn 1, by moving into the bottom Mage’s range (SE from the Archer). However, that can’t really be cleaned up to recruit Libra in time. Plus, even if trying to clear that stuff, the bottom left corner has a few enemies that only Avatar can really reach to kill in time, yet she also needs to fly over to Hammertime the boss (unless relying on Libra criticals or something) I admit I didn’t try that hard to 3 turn this though, as I’m recruiting Tharja. >_>. In hindsight it may be doable with aggroing the bottom early, then recruiting Libra on turn 3 player phase. The reliable 4 turn is pretty simple, though it can require some adaptation in the later turns. It’s possible to recruit both Libra and Tharja very consistently, while not using any Rescue uses. Bring Avatar, Gaius, Frederick, Sumia, Panne, Kellam, Cordelia, Lon’qu, Ricken, Lissa, Maribelle. Everyone has a role to play. First, the nearby Archer and Mage should be dealt with. The Archer hits Avatar really hard and the Mage is very mobile in the Desert and also hits stuff very hard. Avatar with Gaius kills the Mage from its left (this is in range of a few left Soldiers). Frederick with Sumia kills the Archer from its right. My Frederick cleanly onerounds this Archer with a Str Tonic, but a slightly more average Frederick could use a forged Hand Axe or rely on Luna/Dual Strike. Panne with Kellam goes in range of 2 Soldiers and a Wyvern (if the Wyvern spawns Str+2, play safer). With a Spd tonic, she doubles and does heavy damage, onerounding the Soldiers with a Kellam Dual Strike. Cordelia/Chrom, Ricken/Maribelle, Lissa/Lon’qu Pair up and move to just out of enemy range. Turn 2. Avatar flies down to kill an Archer near Libra (Gaius gives just enough move no matter how the Archer is positioned, plus allows enough Move to do whatever action is necessary next turn). Frederick goes down onto a fort and kills the Mage. Ricken usually has to kill a Wyvern here. Cordelia may have to kill a Soldier (Spd tonic + Chrom allows doubling at base Spd). Panne usually can reclass to Wyvern this turn (if she kills at least 1 Soldier, which is around 90% likely), if not, she grabs a kill. At the same time, Panne and Cordelia should block Ricken from getting attacked by a Wyvern. Lissa heals or just moves closer. Turn 3 and on. Different things can happen, but in general, Avatar, Frederick,and Panne clean the bottom while luring Tharja (leave someone with 1 range so they don’t counter and kill her). Maribelle and Lissa do some healing, with Lissa transferring Lon’qu to Panne so she doubles more stuff as a Wyvern. Cordelia flies down to drop Chrom off in a safe place for Libra to recruit himself, then maybe tries to grab a few kills (Cordelia can usually take a hit here from anything even against the Silver Axe Wyverns, with a Def tonic. Chrom just barely cannot even with a Tonic). Chrom reaches Tharja and recruits her. I had Chrom Pair with Tharja so they could Switch and Transfer Chrom to Avatar so they fight the boss together (and got C support, ending my worries about their marriage). To be the most reliable, it seems the Hammer is required for the boss (kills even if Pavise activates every time). Luckily, it was obtained way back in C3. Maybe the Killer Axe is the next best option or alternatively a magical Avatar can also work. There’s obviously a safe transition into a 5 turn if desired. If using Grandmaster Avatar, the strategy structure would be very different to deal with the lack of flying. A reliable 4 turn may still be possible, though the bottom left enemies will be troublesome. Dark Flier should be pretty similar to Griffon, except with worse durability. Shouldn’t be a huge deal this chapter, however. It does not seem like Wyvern!Panne at the start of this chapter would be expected to cut any turns, but I’m not too sure. May help on the reliability front slightly. Avatar is 10/16/03.03. Panne is 10/01.50. Cordelia is 08.16. ;_; [spoiler=Chapter 10: 2/52] A short chapter, but lots of work was done to optimize reliability. The result works quite well. As far as I can tell, it doesn’t seem possible to reliably get the Seraph Robe Thief, along with the Bullion(M) and Master Seal. With some luck, could maybe burn an extra Rescue use to do it. But instead we’ll focus on the latter 2 items. To reach the boss in 2 turns without Anna, it is necessary to take advantage of knowing where Rescue Staves send units. For this chapter, blocking the south and east tile essentially gives more effective move to your units, as they are Rescued to the west tile. Avatar also needs +1 Move to reach the boss in time. This positioning needs to be combined with something that allows reliably getting the items. It appears the Frederick with Sumia is the only unit that can survive heavy enemy phase pressure. Therefore they need to head up to the Bullion(M) Thief. Frederick has A support which is 6 Spd, +2 from a Tonic, and so he should reach the 22 Spd necessary to double the Thief. He could ohko the Thief as well with enough Str if somehow lacking the Spd. This leaves Gaius to Pair with Avatar for the +1 Move. It is somewhat hard to kill off the Master Seal Thief, as it is fairly dodgy with Underdog+high Spd and too fast to double for most units. We can use a Tharja and Cordelia combination to do so. Cordelia then needs Kellam to survive the enemy phase. So Tharja and Cordelia Pair, then Cordelia goes onto the fort to the west (this blocks the south space for Libra’s Rescue) and drops Tharja to her west. Kellam walks up to Pair with Cordelia. Panne with Lon’qu blocks the east space, so that Libra can Rescue Avatar with Gaius to a tile to his left. They fly way up to kill some stuff (cleanly oneround everything with a Str Tonic and regular Hand Axe). Chrom and Maribelle move a little closer. Turn 2, Maribelle pairs with Tharja for the +Hit from support and Tharja chips the Thief. Cordelia finishes (use accurate stuff like Wind/Iron Lance). Panne grabs a kill and Libra hopefully sets up a kill for Chrom. Avatar flies to Mustafa. It turns out that with a Str tonic, she is still 4 mt short of cleanly onerounding (3 mt if she procs Str this chapter, but that doesn’t always happen). It’s necessary to finish on player phase or Chrom/others would die. Because it’s so expensive, Avatar instead uses an Energy Drop, then forges the previous +1 Hand Axe to +2. If Avatar had even worse Str, she probably could use both Energy Drops. This map does not appear possible to 2 turn without a promoted and flying Avatar, though I could be mistaken. Name Class Level Hp Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res Statboosters Chrom Lord /03.71 22 8 1 9 9 7 8 1 Avatar Griffon Rider 10/16/04.84 47 31 8 24 24 21 25 13 Energy Drop Frederick Great Knight ??/11.22 39 21 2 18 17 9 20 4 Lissa Cleric /04.78 20 2 7 5 5 11 3 5 Maribelle Troubadour /04.76 19 1 5 4 7 5 3 9 Panne Wyvern Rider 10/02.12 34 19 2 15 13 9 15 2 Cordelia Pegasus Knight /08.63 26 10 3 14 15 9 8 8 Libra War Monk ??/01.57 40 15 16 13 14 11 12 17 Supports: Chrom: C Avatar. C Frederick. Avatar: B Stahl. C Chrom. C Lissa. C Gaius Frederick: S Sumia. C Chrom. C Virion. Lissa: C Avatar. Panne: C Kellam Skills (Stat bonuses from skills and weapons included in the above stats.): Chrom: Dual Strike+ Avatar: Veteran, Solidarity, Strength+2, Tantivy Frederick: Discipline, Outdoor Fighter, Luna Lissa: Miracle Maribelle: Resistance+2 Panne: Even Rhythm, Strength+2 Cordelia: Speed+2 Libra: Miracle, Healtouch I can already see Spd benchmarks are going to be an issue (even next chapter, no one is close to doubling Gangrel). I’ll still try to train Chrom for Lucina so Avatar can have Say’ri. Or maybe Gregor for Avatar, Say’ri for Lucina. Dunno really. Probably Paladin Frederick for Panne or something. ;______;

If you have a unit block off the middle chokepoint, Marth can solo pretty much the whole right side until the Cavaliers (where she then has around a 40% chance of death, but it's fine if she dies). By that time there aren't many enemies left. The rest of your team can handle the west. The unit that blocks the middle needs to be fairly strong, but in the past I've used a trained Lon'qu, or Sully (which are options in addition to the obvious Chrom, Avatar, Frederick. Stahl could also work) there before. Sword users are good to dodge the Axes and if avoid is good, also the Dark Magic. Note that it's fairly safe to have a healer behind this unit as the other 2 range enemies are Dark Mages which Lissa/Maribelle can take a hit from. Though this assumes you've trained those units a bunch in Paralogue 1 and that they also fought in Chapter 5 (should level 10+, with a decent C support and tonic help). Just use Avatar or Chrom there in the middle if you need to.

I really like this new backup save function. Finally get to play around and test some stuff while keeping my other files. Also, before I was worried I would forget to pass the right skills with Lucina/Morgan when the time came... Anyways, these chapters are quite straightforward. [spoiler=Chapter 7: 3/41] The 2 turn is feasible, but requires a bunch of luck. Avatar probably has to avoid/Dual Guard a Silver Bow shot (like 80+ true hit) and needs to get lucky against the boss with Chrom (or Ricken or something) Dual Strikes. 3 turns is quite lenient, but a bunch of stuff can happen if trying to feed people kills. I’ll just go over a few things to note instead of a very detailed step by step. Avatar Pairs with Stahl yet again (my C2 clear was clearly prescient to build those support points. >_>). She needs the Spd to double Archers/Barbs, plus likes the +Def and +Avoid from C support. I suppose my Avatar has somewhat above average Spd, but it should be possible to Pair with Sumia, Lon’qu or Chrom instead if necessary to meet the 18 Spd benchmark for Barbs. My Avatar’s Def is a bit below average too, at 7/17 level ups which sort of evens out. Frederick Pairs with Sumia but it doesn’t seem to really matter. He could Pair with Chrom or anyone with +Spd, but I’d rather build support points. We bring both Lon’qu and Kellam for Panne. Panne can sometimes take 2 hits with Kellam and Def tonic, or she can double and do heavy damage with Lon’qu Pair Up. Depending on how things shake out, both can be useful. Also bring Maribelle for a little healing, Ricken for chip. People take tonics as necessary, mostly Def tonics. The tricky enemies are the Thieves who are hard to one-round, the Archer and Short Axe Barbarian with 2 range, the Wyvern with the Concoction, and the Boss with lots of Hp/Def. Firstly the Thieves can have Underdog which can reduce Avatar’s hit rate to somewhat low values (70% true hit or so at worst in a forest). Basically Frederick just needs to tag along to help Avatar out if she misses and if Stahl doesn’t help out with Dual Strikes. She usually 2hkos (but 1 hit puts them in Stahl’s Dual Strike range), but with a Str tonic and if lucky with some Str procs, Avatar can ohko them too. Try to avoid fighting adjacent to forests if possible as well. The 2 range enemies need to be planned for. One Archer can be killed turn 1 and the middle one lured with Frederick. Obviously their Silver Bows hit Avatar a bit too hard so she can’t really lure them. This still gives 2 full turns to clean them up. Avatar can equip a Hand Axe when heading over the right to deal with the Short Axe Barbarian (she still easily one-rounds other Barbs and Wyverns). A top Wyvern has a Concoction and weakened enemies definitely like to use it to heal up. He needs to be lured and killed before enemies start trading around the Concoction. It is beneficial to aggro the boss early so he can be chipped on Turn 2 enemy phase to allow a clean 3 turn finish. Avatar can easily do this with careful positioning first turn (as aggro behavior of some of the right Wyverns is coupled with the boss). All that being said, Turn 1, Avatar with Stahl kills an Archer while in aggro range of some right Wyverns. Usually Frederick with Sumia heads up to weaken a Barb and lure the Concoction Wyvern and middle Archer with a Levin Sword (there are cases if Avatar misses for him to finish the Archer too). Panne gets into position to grab a kill on enemy phase. A bunch of things can happen depending on Dual Strikes, Luna, misses, etc. In general, Frederick and Avatar head right, prioritizing the Archers and Thieves, healing with Concoctions if necessary. It’s fairly straightforward to clean stuff up and feed kills to Panne, though the exact number will vary. Panne should Pair with Lon’qu or Kellam depending on what she needs. She’s healed by Maribelle as necessary and Ricken provides chip. Chrom may be able to steal a few kills too, but he didn’t end up with any in my run. There’s lots of variance, but as far as I can tell, it can all be very reliably dealt with by a bit of thought and properly adapting. Theoretically Panne or Chrom could even nab the bosskill in some cases. Not that consistent though. Not going to really optimize this for exp b/c it’s just not that interesting. Honestly Frederick could probably reliably 3-4 turn this chapter by himself. <_< RNG wise. It’s mostly minor hit rate and avoid stuff. Tantivy helps a little when Avatar gets it. Frederick cleans up and does whatever he needs to do depending on how the RNG goes (beware the Hammer, mostly). As long as Avatar doesn’t face Archers, she faces just a 5-6hko at 50% hit from the strongest enemies, the Wyverns (who may get Str+2 or Tantivy) and a few Barbs (with worse hit). This is further alleviated by Def growth procs throughout the chapter. She probably doesn’t really face that many enemies per turn in total, and can heal with the Concoction in between turns, so it’s not a big issue. Frederick has Swords, Outdoor Fighter, Sumia support, possibly Forest terrain, so he really has no problems at all. Durability is probably more of a concern for Pegasus Knight and Tactician/other Mage classes if they are used instead. Too lazy to copy stats. For reference, Avatar is level 10/13.72, Panne is 8.37. [spoiler=Chapter 8: 5/46] The 4 turn with all 3 villages is quite doable, but requires Dual Strikes because Avatar can’t double the Myrms. In addition, it’s riskier durability-wise for her. Avatar would also have to Pair with Gaius for the move necessary, so even less Def and Avoid. Note that 3-4 turns may be possible if forgoing the Second Seal village. In a sense, a secondary combat unit like Panne "costs" turns (or in non-Renown cases, Avatar reclassing over promoting costs a turn). However, I believe Panne will have some contributions later on that other characters cannot reliably replicate. An overview: We need all the slots available for this chapter. Avatar needs Stahl (this support is amazing) for the Spd to double Caveliers. Stahl also gives a nice +3 Def and +10 avoid. They charge the middle, then go for the Second Seal. Frederick with Sumia routs the left and visits the Master Seal village. Ricken, Cordelia, Lissa, Chrom do various actions to get Panne and Cordelia some exp up top. Also they grab the Rescue staff, which we put to use in this very chapter. Tonic up as necessary. Turn 1. Frederick with Sumia heads to a magic square on the left, 2 tiles below a Fighter and attacking him (doesn’t matter too much if Frederick kills this phase or not). My Frederick with a Str Tonic and +1 mt Hand Axe cleanly onerounds the Dark Mages (an average Frederick may not, but Dual Strike or Luna can help, ~80% for at least 1 proc). Avatar with Stahl flies far down. Ricken chips the top Fighter, who Panne with Kellam finishes (this kills even if Fighter has Hp+5). Lissa heals Panne from the right. Cordelia with Chrom (the Spd prevents the Myrm from doubling) goes 2 spaces below Panne, blocking off the Myrm and Dark Mage. She can tank both these enemies. Turn 2. Frederick Switches to Sumia, heads down and kills a Cavalier if one is left alive (actually can delay this a turn as well if too many enemies survive Turn 1, which is rare). With a Def tonic, Sumia can survive a Silver Lance on enemy phase as well if both Cavs are alive. Of course, if Frederick just gets a Dual Strike or Luna, those Cavs are all gone. Avatar flies down to chip a Myrm while in range of a bunch of stuff. Panne with Kellam goes adjacent to Cordelia with Chrom, Switches to Kellam to Transfer Panne over. Cordelia with Panne flies to the Dark Mage, who Panne kills (even if hit by Nosferatu). Kellam can survive a round with the Myrm and Panne won’t die either if attacked. Ricken and Lissa head a bit toward the village. Turn 3. Sumia flies near the Master Seal Village (in range of a middle Cav if necessary). Switch to Frederick, equip a 1-2 range weapon, and heal. Avatar flies near the boss/other Dark mages depending on how safe it looks. Panne finishes the Myrm (do various chip if necessary). Lissa heals. Ricken moves closer to the village. Turn 4 and on. Ricken visits the village. Lissa moves adjacent to him, trading for the Rescue Staff and Rescues Panne with Cordelia (maybe shouldn’t burn this use, but we’ll see…). They head down, and Separate to gain a bit more move. Turn 5 Cordelia can fly Panne down to grab a few remaining Myrm kills as durability allows. In the meantime, Frederick has tons of time to clean up his area and visit the Master Seal Village. As for Avatar, the boss has ~32% true hit, Nosferatu Mage has ~16-30% true hit, the Arcwind Mage has around 56-73% hit. The boss only has Hex which shouldn’t come into play. The other Dark Mages seem to rarely have Anathema, which leads to the higher end of those hit rates. The other enemies chip her and do little damage. It depends on the enemy positioning, but Avatar’s chance of death shouldn’t be that high as long as she doesn’t face both the boss and the Arcwind Dark Mage in the same turn. Even if facing both in the same turn, it’s probably still ~20% death at worst. Offense wise, Avatar cleanly onerounds things she doubles, including the boss. Avatar’s accuracy on the Myrms isn’t the best, ranging from around 80-90%. However, she gets multiple chances to hit them and it can actually be beneficial if she misses some hits (but not too many) so that Panne and Cordelia can grab a few more kills. She has 3 turns to clean up most of the bottom and grab the Second Seal. Easy transition to a 6 turn if more safety is desired, but 5 is very doable in most circumstances. It’s probably harder to 5 turn reliably (with the villages) without a flying Avatar. Pegasus Knight may have an easier time here, with more Res against the magic and more Spd to possibly double the Myrms. A reliable 4 turn may be possible in that case. Name Class Level Hp Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res Statboosters Chrom Lord /03.14 22 8 1 9 9 7 8 1 Avatar Griffon Rider 10/16/01.00 44 28 7 22 23 20 24 13 Frederick Great Knight ??/09.98 36 19 2 16 16 9 19 4 Lissa Cleric /04.39 20 2 7 5 5 11 3 5 Lonqu Myrmidon /06.12 21 7 2 13 15 8 8 3 Maribelle Troubadour /04.10 19 1 5 4 7 5 3 9 Panne Taguel /09.57 31 14 2 16 17 13 11 3 Cordelia Pegasus Knight /07.30 25 9 3 13 14 9 8 8 Supports: Chrom: C Frederick. Avatar: C Lissa. B Stahl. Frederick: C Chrom. C Virion. A Sumia. Lissa: C Avatar. Panne: C Kellam Skills (Stat bonuses from skills and weapons included in the above stats.): Chrom: Dual Strike+ Avatar: Veteran, Solidarity, Strength+2, Tantivy Frederick: Discipline, Outdoor Fighter, Luna Lissa: Miracle Lonqu: Avoid+10 Maribelle: Resistance+2 Panne: Even Rhythm Cordelia: Speed+2 Promoted to Griffon, despite wasting 59 exp (again…). Frederick’s Str is slightly blessed, which gives him a few clean orkos he otherwise wouldn’t have. Dual Strikes/Luna/forging could compensate in those cases (plus in this chapter he has tons of leniency turnwise to clean his side). Panne’s levels are ridiculous so far, but it has yet to matter as her stats are still too low to do anything substantial. Avatar’s stats seem to be leveling out, but lolVeteran. My exp optimization definitely wasn’t the greatest, but I have a hard time seeing how to feed Panne those last 2 kills, to get to her reclass, in a reliable manner. She probably has to nab one of the bosskills somehow. Oh well, we’ll just reclass her next chapter or so. Both Panne and Cordelia are higher priority for kills over Chrom at this point. At this rate, I think I may just end up Pairing Lucina with Say’ri or something, xd. Actually a little concerned if Chrom and Avatar will marry or not. >_>

If you want to use Lon’qu long-term, he’s probably better as a Myrm->Wyvern->Wyvern Lord. He can stack Avoid+10, Tantivy, Quick Burn, and especially Swordbreaker (remember Wyverns use Axes) for lots of avoid. Vantage can help a little too. Nearly anyone who can become a Wyvern can do this such as Sully or Panne (or even Virion). Panne is probably the strongest statistically of those who can go Wyvern though. Lon’qu isn’t that special in this regard, he’s just relatively easy to train because of his Sword rank, Avoid+10,and high base Spd early on. If you want to do so, reclass early with the Renown/C8/Anna shop Second Seals for the best results. Lon’qu can also work in his other classes, but the Valm arc has tons of Lances and other accurate stuff that hits really hard.

Like was said, Chapter 3 and Paralogue 1 are the main good early chapters to train. Chapter 3 because you can kite in a circle around the stage. Paralogue 1 has lots of non-aggressive enemies that you can lure one at a time. Taking some time to train in these chapters can allow characters like Chrom, Lon'qu, Sully, Stahl to fight decently in Chapter 5 and on. Other than that, Chapter 7 or so begins a string of fairly tame chapters until Chapter 12, so that's another good opportunity. For anyone you want to use long term, reclass early and stay unpromoted as long as possible for the fast exp gain. Lon'qu is very good early on because he can dodge the early Axes and Dark Magic fairly easily. His low defenses mean he can have trouble later on, especially if kept in the Myrmidon tree. Gaius is like a worse Lon'qu, imo, except he can get Sol later on and has thieving utility.

But it takes turns no? We could stay around in maps and farm reinforcements and one could argue by not doing so we’re losing exp and hindering reliability. But we’re trying to have a somewhat optimized mix of low turncounts and high reliability, across the game. I’m obviously going to Paralogues if I think they help expected turncount, such as Morgan’s. Others may think it feels wrong if we Rescue chain all the bosskill maps. Or it feels wrong if we don’t get all the chests. Or it feels wrong if Chrom never promotes. Etcetc. None of that feels wrong to me, but something like sacrificing units does. Again, it’s no big deal, just a decision players personally make during their playthroughs. There have traditionally been various clauses used by efficiency players such as "Recruit all" or "All gaidens but 19xx", etc, for players to use if they so wish.

One can play efficiently with or without Paralogues. There's no set way to do it. I simply choose to consider them optional, like Challenges/Skirmishes. In my mind, allowing them introduces some iffy ground, particularly wrt children paralogues. Note there's plenty of other arbitrary decisions I make such as not sacrificing units even though that could potentially save turns. I probably will recruit Tharja, even though she may be expected to cost turns and not save any. Simply because I dislike seeing the death quotes. >_>

Wasn’t too bad. Tried too much silliness to 3 turn. Probably tried every single character at some point. [spoiler=Chapter 6: 4/38] It’s a quite clean 4 turn with some small 5 turn chance and some small chance of death. Fed kills to Panne and Chrom where possible, which was not often. Tried a bunch of stuff, including silliness like Ricken!Levin Sword!Frederick to try to 3 turn (not enough 1-2 range weapon uses otherwise), but this ended up the most consistent. The main issue that prevents 3 turns is only having 2 competent fighters, plus Validar 2hkoing anyone who fights him so it’s dangerous to attack him on player phase. ORKOing him is hard, but I suppose it is doable with a strong forge. Expensive, and other stuff will still likely be unreliable. 3 turns looks doable with Killing Edge crits though. Frederick and Avatar take Str and Def tonics. Lon’qu takes a Str tonic. Kellam carries a Def Tonic with him. The setup is Frederick, Sumia, Kellam, Maribelle with Chrom on the left. Avatar, Stahl, Lon’qu, Ricken, Lissa on the right. Essentially, Frederick thins out the middle, then routs the left. Avatar solos the whole right side. Her Pairing with Stahl has several advantages. The Spd guarantees my Avatar can double Cavaliers and Validar (note this is probably not necessary as it appears Wyvern!Avatar can be expected to 2hko with Hand + Iron, maybe forged). The +10 Avoid from C support helps a little against the Dark Mages. The Spd on these Fighters/Dark Mages is otherwise pretty low so Avatar and Frederick should have no problems meeting the benchmark. Units like Panne and Lon’qu can do quite heavy damage too. Chip units are also useful, particularly against the Thieves. Turn 1, Frederick with Sumia kills the Fighter in the middle. Maribelle heals if he was hit. Chrom moves to the right edge of the left Fighter’s range with Kellam adjacent for some small Hit bonus. Lon’qu, Ricken, Lissa all head left. Avatar with Stahl flies down to attack a Thief. She has 85% true hit (less in subsequent turns with a Hand Axe instead of Bronze) to 2hko and 35% Dual Strike which also kills if she hits at least once. She has pretty much the entire duration of the chapter, maybe 5 attacks total, to kill, so very likely overall (probably easily >99%). Turn 2, Lissa moves to give Ricken a hit bonus. Ricken kills the Thief (97% true hit or so) next to Frederick if Sumia did not Dual Strike and kill it. Lon’qu and Chrom are available if necessary. I have no idea why I didn’t feed this kill to Chrom. Maybe he didn’t kill or he’s inaccurate and gets orko’d in return so it’s too dangerous or something. >_> Regardless, Frederick with Sumia attacks the Dark Mage with Orsin’s Hatchet, one-rounding cleanly unless hit by Nosferatu (even if hit by Nosferatu, can Dual Strike or Luna). Overall very likely to kill. Though tricky, there’s still contingencies if that Dark Mage doesn’t die too, which just revolves around more chip from the various other characters. Chrom moves adjacent to Frederick, rearranging his inventory so he equips a Sword. Maribelle hides behind some units and heals Chrom. Panne pairs with Kellam, they move next to Chrom with Panne in front, who takes the Def tonic from Kellam and uses it. Now Fighters can’t 2hko (gives flexibility to her actions, as she can safely attack them on player phase). Others huddle in the middle. Avatar heads down (stay in range of the Thief if necessary), equipping a Hand Axe (just got D rank last turn) and heals with a Vulnerary. In hindsight, I should have also traded away Sumia’s Iron Lance afterwards so she couldn’t Dual Strike and kill Thieves accidentally I got a bit unlucky when I did my run and Sumia did Dual Strike, taking a few of Chrom/Panne’s kills. Though, this did make it a little more straightforward to 4 turn at the loss of some exp. Turn 3, Frederick is healed by Mend, and kills a Dark Mage with a Bronze Sword, which kills even if he’s hit by Nosferatu. Chrom recruits Gaius and Pairs with him. They head toward the treasure chest and Separate (Chrom is in range of a Dark Mage here). Panne kills an enemy in the middle, with Lon’qu and Ricken to help out if necessary. Avatar heads further down into Validar’s range and heals. Turn 4, Lon’qu attacks the Dark Mage who attacked Chrom with his Killing Edge. If he doesn’t crit, Chrom grabs the kill. Panne finishes a Cavelier nearby. Frederick can be healed by Mend again, then heads far left into the remaining enemies’ range and kills a Cavelier with Orsin’s Hatchet (exactly 6 uses left for 3 enemies). If that Fighter spawns Hp+5, Frederick needs Dual Strike help (about 57% for 1 in 2 chances). Avatar finishes Validar. Gaius nabs the Secret Book. It is possible for more enemies to be left alive than noted here. Or depending on how growths go, some enemies that are borderline killed manage to survive. Can usually have some combination to finish them between Chrom, Ricken, Lon’qu, Panne, (I don’t think Lissa did anything, so could bring Virion or something for chip too) or could always forge some mt on stuff too. Therefore the only real RNG is that last Fighter who may have Hp+5, and Avatar’s survival. It’s mainly the 2 Dark Mages that are the most dangerous, with around a 3hko at 50% hit for Elthunder, and 32% true hit for Nosferatu (I think this is with Anathema, but unsure). Various other enemies can chip her at middling hit rates. Validar does huge damage, over 20, but by that time the other enemies are mostly cleared out. It’s hard to really know her chance of death, but it’s probably <5% as a conservative estimate. This map would be particularly hard to rout without a strong Avatar that can take on one of the sides by him or herself. Pegasus Knight might actually have an easier time because of the higher Res and no hit rate issues against the Thieves. Durability against Fighters may be a small concern though and she may not cleanly oneround as easily. Grandmaster should clear pretty easily, though unpromoted mage classes could run into durability issues. Name Class Level Hp Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res Statboosters Chrom Lord /03.14 22 8 1 9 9 7 8 1 Avatar Wyvern Rider 10/09.38 36 23 6 13 16 15 18 7 Frederick Great Knight ??/08.65 36 18 2 15 16 9 18 4 Lissa Cleric /03.55 19 1 7 5 4 10 3 5 Lonqu Myrmidon /06.12 21 7 2 13 15 8 8 3 Maribelle Troubadour /03.88 18 0 5 4 6 5 3 8 Panne Taguel /07.10 29 12 2 14 15 12 9 3 Supports: Chrom: C Frederick. Avatar: C Lissa. C Stahl. Frederick: C Chrom. C Virion. B Sumia. Lissa: C Avatar. Skills (Stat bonuses from skills and weapons included in the above stats.): Chrom: Dual Strike+ Avatar: Veteran, Solidarity, Strength+2 Frederick: Discipline, Outdoor Fighter, Luna Lissa: Miracle Lonqu: Avoid+10 Maribelle: Resistance+2 Panne: Even Rhythm Really want to train Chrom but Panne is currently the priority to see if she can reach Wyvern for Chapter 9. Nice Mag and Res level Lon’qu. ^_^ Also, in much unrelated hilariousness, Frederick with Sumia actually doubles Gaius, as I found out when trying to head down the left initially. However, nothing particularly stands out so far as stats are averaging out. Don’t think any strategies have been seriously affected yet by RNG in growths.

Hmmm...I can think of an example where the AI didn't plan that far ahead. In my recent Lunatic C2 clear, my Avatar could have died if 2 Soldiers suicided into her first, then was attacked by a Barbarian. Instead, the Barbarian attacked Chrom and the Soldiers ran into Avatar afterwards. It "seems" that the enemy order is set, as in first Barbs move, then Myrms, then Soldiers or something. Wait, maybe I'm misunderstanding, but if the RNG is the same, won't obviously the same thing happen every time? I think people have reported the inability of Bookmarks to rig growths and such. When I'm talking about "randomness", I'm referring to reseting the chapter completely (which seems to change the RNG seed) or just end turn again and again (as you did twice in that video). Somewhat simple evidence for random movements: Pick any map. End your turn immediately with all your units out of range. Note enemy positions. Reset and repeat. I just did it a few times in a Challenge in Aversa's map. It really seems pathing is random (unless somehow the enemy skill distribution is affecting its AI). Also, if Gangrel is somehow choosing between Annie and Sumia, that also suggests an RNG component in the AI deciding who to attack. EDIT: I'm doing a little testing and I'm getting results consistent with yours so far wrt to the terrain issue. Enemies appear to prefer avoiding counters over terrain in all the various cases I tested with strong/weak or enemy/player units. Enemies that attack at 2 range to avoid a counter generally do not move to a different tile to attack after each turn, they just stay put. Hmm...maybe it was in Tiki's chapter or something, with notoriously weird AI.

There's also the possibility that boss AI differs from specific enemy AI. Regardless, iirc, I have seen cases where the AI could avoid counterattack damage but chooses to eat the counter instead. Did you test that more times? 2 is a low sample size. It would definitely tell us something if Gangrel always attacked from that square in that circumstance. At the very least, less RNG than expected.

Yes, though there may be more factors like the damage they can do, the damage you do to counter, their Hp, your Hp, etc.

True enough. I haven't tested that, though I would if I had the save slots. Someone should test though. >_> I know that AI decision-making in deciding which tile/direction to attack from is random (as in my C1 Turn 1). Along the same lines, I would expect pathing to be random in general. It's also hard for me to envision the type of programming that would choose between 2 seemingly identical pathings, based on damage. Frederick is the only unit close to the Mage, so I don't see an immediate difference in which way the Mage moves. It should be fairly easy to test, as the Barbs have high hit rates and the Myrms do 0 damage. In my experience, they prefer going on good terrain over avoiding counterattacks.

I'm fairly certain many AI movements/pathing have an RNG component. If enemies are aggro'd but cannot reach your units that turn, they seem to randomly decide betweeen any of the possible pathings that result in being around the same number of tiles away from your units (Can be observed as early as the first Mage in Prologue). If they can attack, they seem to decide randomly from which tile to attack from (unless it's a terrain thing, which they definitely prefer) In choosing between attacking 2 characters, I'm not actually sure how much it's weighted by your character durability and such as well. It does seem weighted in many cases (more likely to attack weaker units), but I have also observed the AI attacking strong units like Frederick over weak ones. It doesn't seem as set as FE12, for example. It seems strange that they would take advantage of Counter and not Luna+. It's possible, but would be quite strange programming. Given others reporting the opposite happening, I'm inclined to think it's a random thing. Might comment on aggro behavior for a few other chapters later. EDIT: I'll also note the AI in general is very good at calculating if something can kill. They really like to team up in combination if that said combination can kill a unit. Also, Boss units tend to move first on their turn (preventing EP exp), unless another enemy can kill one of your units.

This. Chapter. There’s no chance of this one being very short. <_< However, the end result is fairly simple and very reliable. In theory enemies could do random movements to block certain tiles, but I never saw it happen and am far too lazy to reset and test to see if it does happen. [spoiler=Chapter 5: 6/34] I believe that 4 turns may be doable with sacrifices and/or amazing luck. Ricken and Maribelle are maybe sac'd to aggro the boss and Wyverns early. Lon’qu and Chrom get some crits and block the southwest fort. Frederick with Sumia, Avatar with Kellam/someone cleans the top. Probably most feasible with Grandmaster Avatar or some other strong mage class like Dark Mage or if using Celica’s Gale. 5 turns is more iffy, since a Wyvern reinforcement appears in the top right during that enemy phase, far away from the others. A Myrm also spawns from the middle left fort who no one can really double and oneround. Finishing on turn 5 player phase is a tall order as there’s likely not enough 1-2 range to kill everything in time. A 5 turn would basically be a 4 turn except for a few misc. enemies. None of it seems that reliable to me. I do not have Rescue and I refuse to sacrifice units. Therefore I’m pretty pleased with the reliable 6 turn here, especially since Avatar got a bunch of kills and nice levels. It is not easy at all to save Maribelle/Ricken while still trying to clear quickly. The crux of the strat is a Frederick with Sumia charge, using terrain and triangle advantage to deal with the enemy density. The goal is to get to the upper level fort (in range of the 3 immobile foot units) by turn 3. Spd benchmark is quite easy, as just 11 Spd is needed for Barbs/Wyverns since C Sumia gives 5 Spd. Also, Frederick gets a few levels before fighting the boss, where he needs 12+5 Spd. It is useful if Frederick onerounds the Dark Mage with a ranged weapon and onerounds Wyverns with an Iron Sword, which may require around average str and/or forging a tiny bit. Meanwhile, Avatar with Kellam and Lon’qu with Chrom clean up the bottom, save Maribelle+Ricken, and deal with any misc. enemies. So then, Avatar reclasses to Wyvern. Her weapon levels and Mag were too low to do good damage otherwise. Plus, Wyvern gives some really nice Hp, Str, and Def. The flying and Move also proved useful when flying around to clean stuff up. Note my Avatar’s blessed Spd had little effect this chapter because I paired her with Kellam, not Chrom (who she needs to double). She was too fragile with Chrom Pair Up and Lon’qu needed it anyways to double. She did need to double a Dark Mage, which requires 12 Spd. However, if my stats were more like the average, I could have just used Stahl’s C rank Pair Up for +2 Spd, -2 Def for nearly the same result. Str and Def tonics to Frederick, Avatar, Lon’qu. Forged +1 Mt on a Bronze Axe (was so Avatar + Chrom could oneround Barbs, but was unnecessary in the end. Still good against the Dark Mage and to cleanly 2hko Wyverns if no Str procs). Forged +1 Mt on an Iron Sword so Frederick could oneround Wyverns even if he didn’t proc Str. Also brought Miriel, Virion, Lissa. Turn 1, Sumia flies Frederick to a forest SW of the Dark Mage in the middle. Frederick just kills the Dark Mage with Orsin’s Hatchet. Nosferatu has very low hit, ranging from around 10-20% true hit if there’s Anathema. The Barbs are also quite inaccurate, at 25% true hit or so. It is clear that the fort tile is safer, but that position doesn’t allow Frederick to reach the forest next turn and then the upper level fort on turn 3. Nosferatu could hit, but Frederick would just finish on enemy phase or Luna/Dual Strike would happen anyways. Thoughout the chapter, Frederick “could” die if hit by absolutely everything but he often has triangle advantage and forest/fort terrain (plus Outdoor Fighter), reducing hit rates to very low numbers. Avatar with Kellam flies to a cliff tile in range of a bottom Barb but not other enemies. Ricken Pairs with Maribelle. Others stay put. Lon’qu with Chrom goes to the forest tile in range of another bottom Barb (the more bottom one). I don’t really like the variation that puts Lon’qu in range of all 4 bottom enemies. He would have a sizable chance of dying, especially if Anathema or Hex spawns. Turn 2, Frederick heads left into another forest tile (I think he can get blocked by enemies here, but it should be very rare) . He equips the Iron Sword and heals with a Vulnerary. The configuration near the bottom shouldn’t matter. Avatar kills the Dark Mage. She kills comfortably even if hit by Nosferatu and can still survive if other stuff all hits from the other enemies. Lon’qu finishes a Barb if he didn’t crit earlier, or else stays in the forest. Ricken and Maribelle head down a bit while out of range. Turn 3, Frederick goes onto the upper level fort and equips the Levin Sword (Renown), healing if necessary. Because there are so many Axe enemies, this is by far the safest weapon for him to use. It’s not like the lesser damage really matters either, as Frederick won’t oneround Wyverns with 1-2 range anyway. Ricken and Maribelle run down to the bottom level, chipping the Myrm if possible, and Avatar with Kellam blocks the chokepoint to protect them and heals with a Vulnerary. Chip with Virion and Miriel and finish the bottom Myrm with Lon’qu or Chrom. I do suppose with Avoid+10, there is some chance this Myrm won’t die though it should be quite rare, Heal with Lissa whoever is hurt, probably Lon'qu. In theory, an earlier Wyvern can move into a position that blocks Maribelle/Ricken rather than heading more toward Frederick. I never saw it, but I see no reason why it wouldn’t sometimes randomly move that way. Ah…silly AI… Within the next 3 turns, Frederick cleans up the north, using a ranged weapon for counter the Dark Mage/Hand Axe Barb/boss and then an Iron Sword if necessary to oneround Wyverns. Ricken, Miriel, Virion, Chrom, Lon’qu deal with a reinforcement Barb easily, block the southwest fort, then deal with a reinforcement Myrm from the middle left fort (there’s so much chip around that it’s nearly guaranteed to kill it). Avatar cleans up a few enemies, then heads left to try and grab some Wyvern kills Frederick is leaving behind. During cleanup, there’s a Myrm that Avatar has up to 6 chances to 2hko at around 70-80% true hit depending on Avoid+10. She would like to heal on her turn so she could take on more Wyverns for more exp, but if desired, she can spend player phase for more attack chances against this Myrm. Safest case scenario is still 99% of her eventually killing in time for the 6 turn, but giving up quite a few Wyvern kills. Of course, it’s probably better to play greedy to get more exp for Avatar. It’s still 93% chance (2 hits in 4 attempts) or so to 6 turn while getting tons of exp. If failed, it just ends up taking 7 turns I suppose… Honestly my play near the end wasn’t that great. There were a few kills I could have fed to Chrom but failed to do so because I chipped with the wrong units and in the wrong order. Lon’qu got those kills instead. My hope is I won’t need Chrom to do anything substantial. >_> It’s hard to envision a reliable 6 turn with Tactician Avatar and without Rescue or sacrifices. I imagine the strategy structure would be significantly different, depending on how strong Avatar actually was. Players like KoT have shown a (much less reliable) 5 turn in that context so I’d imagine something similar in rushing up the right side would be used. To be reliable, it’s possible many more turns would have to be taken. Pegasus Knight could do similarly as this strat. However, the Att difference is 6 after bases, Str+2, and Bronze Axe’s 1 more mt (even more against Axe enemies). The Def difference is 4 against Axes, with 3 less Hp as well. Pegasus Knight could possibly double without Chrom, however, with 5 more Spd. Because of the durability difference, it’s likely a different strategy would be used for a reliable clear. +Def Asset is finally proving its worth, as Avatar can now take a good number of hits while finishing off many enemies that Frederick weakened. Yay stats. Name Class Level Hp Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res Statboosters Chrom Lord /02.92 21 7 1 8 8 6 8 1 Avatar Wyvern Rider 10/05.09 33 20 5 13 15 13 17 5 Frederick Great Knight ??/07.58 35 18 2 15 15 9 18 4 Lissa Cleric /03.21 19 1 7 5 4 10 3 5 Lonqu Myrmidon /05.79 20 7 1 13 14 8 8 2 Supports: Chrom: C Frederick. Avatar: C Lissa. C Stahl. Frederick: C Chrom. C Virion. C Sumia. Lissa: C Avatar. Skills (I include the stat bonuses in the above stats): Chrom: Dual Strike+ Avatar: Veteran, Solidarity, Strength+2 Frederick: Discipline, Outdoor Fighter, Luna Lissa: Miracle Levels were amazing across the board. Though none of the stat blessing has mattered quite yet. Avatar is entering goddess-mode. Supports are building strangely slow. Still want to get Chrom to Charm and promotion if possible, so I’ll now focus a bit more on feeding him kills.

I think all things are trivial if you know the answer in advance. >_<

How is FE13 "trivial" if the prevailing opinion is it's extremely difficult (particularly earlygame)? People usually have to be told the "solution" before they think it's really easy. Which can be said for any FE challenge. I think most people do not come up with the +Def strategy on their own. (I didn't either. I thought +Spd was the way to go initially.). Let someone try a blind run of FE13 Lunatic and I'd imagine they'd find it quite challenging. Probably much harder than FE7, 8, 9, 10 HM.

FE9 Maniac 0% growths. ^_^

I'd say +Spd. Damage and durability can always be rigged by Dual Strikes/Guards. +Spd starts doubling 2 levels faster. It may even be possible to use a +Str/Mag pair up early on and still double (need just 8 levels for 16 Spd). Unless there's a specific benchmark that requires +Mag.

How can such a short chapter result in so much writing? There goes my plan of shorter write-ups. >_< But more seriously, this chapter is quite hard if accounting for random skills and random enemy movements (in addition to all the misc. hit rate RNG and such). The strat itself is quite simple, but requires some thought/explanation in its conception. [spoiler=Chapter 4: 5/28] There exists a 3 turn (just be super aggressive with Frederick) but it's quite unreliable on the survival front. Requires a few Dual Guards or magical dodges. If Avatar had C support with Chrom and enough Spd to double, I'd give it a more serious go. As is, her damage output is too low to fight competently and Frederick can't really kill everything reliably. The 4 turn is much, much better off. It's actually fairly reliable, but requires a little minor luck for survival and for all enemy skills and positionings to go perfectly. If I had saved Elixer/Silver Lance uses, it would be even better as well. If Celica's Gale is allowed, things are a bit easier. I don't think I could have 4 turned with the enemy configuration/positioning I ended with, however. We can do a few misc things to account for random enemy skills, random movements, etc, and therefore 5 turn with high reliability. The main key to the strat is to use trading to rearrange the inventory which can allow different weapons to be used on player and enemy phase. This allows a Silver Lance use to oneshot the Mages (should have the Str on average, tonic if necessary) and the ability to still switch to a ranged weapon for the Short Axe enemies or the Hammer for the Knights. Frederick with Sumia should double the Fighters (11+4 Spd, just 1/3-4 level ups) and one-round them with an Iron Sword (again, tonic if necessary). Chrom uses a Def tonic to survive a Knight hit, which can be useful in a few marginal cases near the end of the chapter. Avatar uses both Str and Def tonics. Vaike Str Tonics. He has an important role in this chapter. First to deal with the Steel Axe Fighters. Frederick with Sumia orkos. 2 Avatar attacks + 1 Vaike attack can just kill. Hp+5 spawns seem rare, but they do prevent Frederick from the orko (unless Sumia Dual Strikes), and require more chip elsewhere. If one is observed, Chrom and Avatar should be unpaired so there are more player phase attacks available. Turn 1, everyone huddles in the middle of the stage, with Frederick positioned to counter one of the Fighters and Avatar the other. Turn 2, some combination of Chrom/Avatar/Vaike finishes the Fighters, taking advantage of Veteran if possible. Lissa should be positioned so Vaike can use the +10 Hit Support bonus on his attack. His true hit here is 92%. It is possible to use a more accurate attack, like from Stahl/Miriel/Virion, but I think, on average, Avatar gets less exp since there are less cases for him to take advantage of Veteran. They also don't deal as well with cases of Hp+5 and such which require more damage. Vaike has the highest Att of the fillers, can also take hits better due to his high Hp, and just barely avoids being doubled at 6 base spd. He does some serious chip with the Hammer, if necessary later on. In addition, the AI starts moving weirdly if other characters are used. I'm not sure if it's coincidence or not, but it seems consistent (-ly weird). Basically, from my limited testing, it seems more flexible and works better to use Vaike here. Frederick should Silver Lance a Mage. He should barely be in the range of a Short Axe enemy, but not in range of the other Mage. Someone should rearrange his inventory so Orsins Hatchet is equipped. Lissa can do this or she can heal someone if another unit has a free action. Note it's actually better in this strat if Frederick does not orko with the Hatchet (unequip Sumia), as it allows Avatar or someone more kills. Turn 3, there is variable positioning in terms of the other Mage, and the Knights. The Mage does need to get Silver Lance'd this turn. In one of the possible configurations (and if Frederick is at near full health after a Lissa Heal), it's possible to also aggro Marth this turn and try for the 4 turn that way. It is also possible to try for some fanciness, where the Silver Lance breaks against Marth so Frederick Hammers down the Knights. In general however, it's more consistent to not aggro quite yet and take the extra turn. This also ends up feeding more kills to Avatar. She Pairs with Chrom and takes a Fighter kill this turn, while being in range of one of the Knights. Frederick kills the Mage and someone rearranges his inventory to equip the Hammer. Turn 4, Frederick should kill the last Fighter. In the case it has Hp+5, Frederick should lure Marth with the Silver Lance equipped such that he is free turn 5 to attack the Fighter for someone else to kill. Depending on how things in general work out, Marth should probably always be lured Turn 4 by Frederick or by Avatar with Chrom (or maybe even something like Sumia with Def Tonic and Vaike). As for the other Knight that was left alive earlier, with averagish Mag, Avatar should kill the Knight in 4 hits (between last turn and this turn) or Chrom has a nice chance to Dual Strike at least once with his Rapier (80%ish). Or don't Pair and fight separately if more chip is needed. Or the Vaike can contribute a little chip too. Clean stuff up, chip Marth down (beware Luna accidently killing), feed the bosskill to Avatar by turn 5. A lot of different things can happen, but I'm pretty sure they can all be dealt with. Have some stats/stuff as well. Name Class Level Hp Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res Statboosters Chrom Lord /02.82 21 7 1 8 8 6 8 1 Avatar Tactician /10.74 26 11 8 10 13 10 12 8 Frederick Great Knight ??/05.32 33 16 2 13 13 7 16 3 Lissa Cleric /02.87 18 1 6 4 4 9 3 4 Supports: Chrom: C Frederick. Avatar: C Lissa. C Stahl. Frederick: C Chrom. C Virion. C Sumia. Lissa: C Avatar. Skills: Chrom: Dual Strike+ Avatar: Veteran, Solidarity Frederick: Discipline, Outdoor Fighter, Luna Lissa: Miracle My Avatar's Spd has gone on a ridiculous run these few chapters (from a point below average to 7/9 which is 9% or so). Def is kinda suffering though. Mag is bleh, but we won't need that soon. Probably reclassing to Wyvern now, despite "wasting" 74 exp (if only there were 1 more kill somewhere...Or I could have fed Chrom...). Ah well, we're not super duper optimized here. >_>. Need to take a closer look at Chapter 5 as well since maybe Elwind is more useful. EDIT: Where apostrophes go? Should be fixed, hopefully.

I suspect the absolute lowest turncount requires quite a bit of RNG abuse, from Dual Strikes/Guards to growths. Have fun. >_>

FE5 is "hard" the first time and from withholding information. FE6 HM accuracy is seriously irksome. FE7 HHM is okay, but it can be a prepromo steamroll. I suppose S Rank is pretty challenging, but I never liked that. FE10 HM is fun, but gives too many broken units and too much bexp, plus the loss of various mechanics like seeing enemy range is just annoying. I didn't find FE11 H5 fun at all. I find FE13 Lunatic really fun, probably the most fun overall, but not really that hard because there's too much op stuff. FE9 Maniac and FE12 Lunatic are probably the best overall imo.

I'm fairly certain no game is still highly competitive after 12 years if people don't consider it an unusually great game. Put another way, there are certainly reasons why there exists Melee bias and bitterness toward Brawl (and not the same toward 64).

I know I can't speak for others, but for me, it's not about the turns at all. I don't care about the actual number or beating certain turncounts. It's about tending toward elegant play with carefully planned positioning, decision-making, resource allocation, no/minimal wasted actions or bloated tactics, etc. I know some others have expressed this sentiment as well. I do not know if your assumption (that players find a "completion" tier list more interesting) is correct. As noted, the players who tend to prefer such a thing usually do not care about turns at all. However, I strongly believe such a list will eventually reduce to discussions about efficiency, and therefore turncount/reliability, which may turn those players away anyways. It already seems that a few other players do not like unnecessary secondary objectives. And so you're essentially introducing arbitrary criteria for...the purpose of introducing arbitrary criteria. Any number of additional criteria you can think of can add strategy to a game, but it doesn't mean we should add them all. You may personally consider it more interesting, but others may not. Again, I'd support making the list to see how it goes. If interest is sufficiently high and people have fun discussing it, it's a success. EDIT: I'd also say I value robustness in the face of the RNG. As such, I like stuff like Interceptor's highly reliable Lunatic+ log, despite taking 999 turns.

Hmm…rambled for quite a bit on this chapter. I don’t anticipate other earlier chapters to be this long. It’s too much work… [spoiler=Chapter 3: 5/23] Okay, let’s be honest here. I spent way too long looking for a consistent 4 turn to no avail. The gate bonus for the boss is really annoying. I think +Mag Avatar can (probably) do it, with a few decent level ups (4 attacks on the boss, plus 4 chances for at least 1 Frederick Dual Strike, it’s 70%ish with the right stats. If 2 Dual Strikes are needed, the success chance plummets to 25% or so) . An alternative is Frederick getting the bosskill, with Avatar joining in on a Dual Strike in 2 chances (maybe 40%ish). But I don’t really like either. Moreover I had some other silly misconceptions like the door has to be open on turn 2 (it doesn’t), which led to planning some fancy convoy/trading stuff that’s unnecessary. Because it is so consistent, however, I'll still be noting this strat. So it’s a 5 turn strat that’s fairly complex early on. Avatar gets a kill almost every turn and the boss. Chrom gets a few kills. We even pick up the Hammer most of the time. I will admit that it’s convenient that my Frederick could double and oneround Archers with Sumia (2/3 Spd level ups, for 12+4 Spd. Not enough for the Soldiers though. The Str doesn't matter as much, just needs a bit more chip to finish enemies.). I’m not going to bother developing strats/contingencies for those kinds of cases as they’re quickly becoming overwhelmingly numerous. Regardless, because Kellam is on the left, it’s more convenient to head up the left. He has the Javelin and some nice +Def for us to use. Frederick again needs to do the bulk of the work, being mobile, durable, and damaging. Stahl and Sully are useful for their high move. Miriel does some nice chip. Sometimes people should be paired, sometimes not, to preserve flexibility in movements. Everyone is useful. We fill Avatar’s inventory with random unused items so she can send the Door Key to the convoy (unneeded, but I did so). So initial positioning is such that after Chrom talks and Pairs with Kellam, they can trade Frederick the Javelin, then Switch and Transfer Kellam to Sully. (I have Miriel starting out in the way, but she can move anywhere to the side). Sully then moves next to Avatar and Transfers over Kellam. Avatar with Kellam (unequipped) moves into range, barely, of the Knight on the left. Sumia (unequipped) Pairs with Frederick and they move adjacent to an Archer, diagonal from the Soldier and attack the Soldier with the Javelin. This blocks the Archer’s movement slightly, giving a bit more space. Stahl moves to the left of Chrom, Virion to just below Chrom. Lissa far left. In general, an Archer (usually with the Door Key. A lot of the following is superfluous if Frederick kills the Door Key Archer first) survives on the forest while the other is dead. The Soldier is at low health and the Knight is damaged. Thus, Miriel chips the Knight. Sully kills the Soldier (Bronze Lance for accuracy). Avatar moves below Frederick, Transfers Kellam for Sumia, and kills the Archer (Bronze Sword for accuracy) and sends the Door Key to the convoy if appropriate. Chrom accesses the convoy for the Door Key, trades it to Stahl on his left, then Pairs with Virion below him. Virion with Chrom heads over to the Knight, who Chrom kills with the Rapier. Stahl moves left and trades Frederick the Door Key. Frederick with Kellam, heads up to open the door, equipping the Iron Axe. With Kellam, he won’t die even if everything hits (he dies if Sumia is the pocket unit instead). Turn 3, Avatar with Sumia moves next to Stahl, Switches in order to Transfer Avatar to Stahl so they can reach and finish the Knight. Frederick moves out (in range of left Merc, Fighter, but not the right ones. Within 5 spaces of Avatar), equipping the Silver Lance and healing with the Elixer. Everyone else moves up but out of range. It should be possible to open the door on turn 3 instead, then rush Frederick out for a similar result. That’s a lot easier in nearly every way. >_> It is at this point that it is possible to try and pursue the 4 turn clear. Miriel Pairs with Sully and they kill an enemy in the way if necessary. Avatar moves next to Frederick, Switches to Stahl to Transfer Avatar over. Frederick with Avatar can try something to kill the boss (requires Dual Strikes either way). Note the way that feeds Avatar the kill may sacrifice Miriel/Sully. Note the Hammer enemy prevents finishing with Frederick on enemy phase, or else it would otherwise be a reliable 4 turn. The 5 turn is similar, instead just turtling for an extra turn. Avatar moves up and kills something with Thunder. Frederick heals again, if necessary, so the Hammer won’t oneshot (it’s inaccurate as well if he equips the Iron Sword). Sully moves to a position 8 tiles from the boss. She can be in range of the Archer but not the other enemies. Others stay out of range. Turn 5, Miriel chips the Hammer Fighter for Chrom to kill. Frederick hits the boss with the Silver Lance twice. Frederick has ~93% true hit on the boss, and must hit both times. Avatar moves out, then Sully moves out, Transfers Avatar to her, Switches, and then Avatar finishes with >90% true hit and hitting 1 of 2 attacks. I’m not exactly sure how reproducible this ending portion is, due to random enemy movements. However, there should exist many other simple positionings to 5 turn that revolve around both Frederick and Avatar getting attack chances on turn 5 player phase. Turn 3 is fairly free to do whatever setup is necessary for such a result. tl:dr, but this strat sets up a foundation for a 4 turn or pretty reliable 5 turn. It’s a little dangerous to try and go for 6 turns since the enemy pincer attack is closing in. I think 5 turns is reasonable, or else it might take much, much longer.