My H5 playlog

[Dat Nick]

I'll admit I haven't really done an honest H5 playthrough without abusing General!Zag: So I'm going to try and rectify that now, because I need to correct some holes in the H5 enemy stats anyway.

A secondary purpose of this is for turncount estimates, as I'm going to try to keep this as efficient as possible, although I will slow down a bit to collect all chests on chest-y levels. Of course, Turncount estimates [And these are especially estimates as I'm not playing the best team or even close] don't do much good in a game without any tactics ranking or non-automatic supports: But read the subtitle, I'm bored.

Anyway:

C1: Wow, keeping Gordin alive helps for the boss. Oh, and fort abuse gets annoyingly slow.

Main team:

Marth 3/0:

20 HP, 6 str, 8 AS, 8 def

Cain 2/0:

20 HP, 8 str, 7 AS, 7 def

Abel 2/0:

21 HP, 6 str, 8 AS, 7 def

Jagen burned through more silver lance uses than I would have liked [it's at 12/20] but I should be able to suck it up.

Turncount: 34 turns [Probably could have been done a little faster as I accidentally wasted a few turns by either missing attacks needed to kill something, miscalculating enemy AI to attack me before coming into their range, etc] but it's spilled milk at worst since this isn't a low turn speedrun.

Chapter 2:

This chapter is a real annoyance as luck HAS to be manipulated if you want to clear it in any reasonable amount of time:

One of three things must be forced:

1: The boss needs to get 11 speed instead of 12 to double Jagen's base speed. Granted, it's easily restart-able, but I wasn't up to it.

2: Jagen needs to get a speed point on level up. Real fun thing to do with 15% chance and only one shot at getting it.

3: Ogma needs to critical the boss with Steel Sword. Granted you can force a critical with anybody: But Ogma's the obvious choice due to highest crit% chance [wow a grand total of five] and not getting doubled. You could use Marth for slightly more frequent crits: But Marth lacks the might to get him within kill reach.

I lucked out and got the Ogma crit early: Which goes faster than tanking him with Jagen, so if Jagen doesn't get doubled, you'd probably add on a few turns.

Main team:

4 Marth: 21 HP, 7 str, 8 spd, 8 def

3 Abel: 22 HP, 7 str, 9 AS, 8 def

3 Cain: 21 HP, 8 str, 8 AS, 7 def

Cord would be a member of my main team, but he hasn't levelled yet. I'm not using Barst longterm but rather for utility. Darros and Draug died, but big deal.

Turncount: 17 turns. Again, could have closed it a little more as I made mistakes with enemy range [it's kind of funky for this chapter] and I had Marth wait just outside the throne instead of seizing it when it was in reach for reasons I can't comprehend [i guess I just thought I wanted to do more at the armory than I actually did] and I accidentally left Barst behind for a few turns, but again, spilled milk as this is still a pretty good time.

more asap

[Rodykitty]

Ooh, pretty cool topic. Can't wait to read more of this.

[NoNameAtAll]

It won't be as funny as Ninji's FE5 playthrough

In all seriousness, I'll read this. So...awesome.

[Dat Nick]

having trouble sleeping ATM, so I did C3.

Nabarl died protecting Ogma/Barst from fighters and Gordin died acting as bait against the fighters from the south: Speaking of those, Bord for lifesaver tier. Those guys ALWAYS gave me trouble until I bothered to actually keep Bord alive: I really underestimated Bord's earlygame utility. 16 ATK chip=win

That aside, Riff/Lena tossing the heal staff back and forth to heal two targets on the same turn saved me a bit of time, although as usual I did accidentally waste a bit of it, as well as taking a while to force a crit on Hyman/forting Ogma since the heal staff broke. Still got the crit early enough to chalk up a decent turncount.

I missed the devil axe, but it's far too risky when the damage actually comes in handy and doesn't really help by the time you can actually kind of block the chance out: So I'm not too heartbroken over it.

Main team:

4 Marth: Same

4 Cain: 22 HP, 9 str, 8 AS, 7 def

4 Abel: 22 HP, 8 str, 10 AS, 9 def [rng blessed much?]

4 Cord: 22 HP, 8 str, 11 AS, 5 def

4 Julian: 18 HP, 4 str, 13 AS, 4 def, 1 res (woo)

Lena's part of the "main team" too but it's for emergency warp/staff/hammerne use more than anything else so her stats don't matter: So she gains a level up on everything except def/res, that figures.

Turncount: 30 turns. You could definitely do a lot better than this but it's not awful and is enough to show no abuse.

[Don Draper]

Oh good, I love reading these topics! Are you going to go a bit more in depth on strategy in these writeups?

[Robert]

RNG abuse the game?

[Dat Nick]

RNG abuse the game?

Not necessarily abuse but I'm not going to take any crap from the RNG like say, 4 levels without Marth gaining one speed point.

Oh good, I love reading these topics! Are you going to go a bit more in depth on strategy in these writeups?

I'll try.

C4:

Bord died, killed Matthis for EXP since Lena couldn't reach him and leaving him alive was just going to cause more problems. Bord's death also was unintentional: I was planning to warp him over to Hardain and pals to stall for time but he got critkilled by an arhcer: Oh well. Bord's earlygame continued to surprise me in making things way easier than they were when I'd just kill Bord and be done with it: With his help in tanking/handaxing, I totally flatlined the cav chargers. Also, here's something you may or may not know: Do NOT block the bridge with the thief on it or else he'll figure out "Hey, I can duck to the other side of the river and ransack the village before you can EVER catch me! Oh, and warping won't work either cuz then the Horsemen are gonna swarm you! Nyeh!"

I'll admit I had to force a crit on player phase with killing edge to deal with the fighters: But it wouldn't surprise me at all if most people did the same since those guys are just annoying to deal with. Then the part that ALWAYS used to give me the heebie-jeebies, the Matthis and Co. kamikaze charge, is actually pretty easily dealt with by keeping your army JUST out of range of them, then move in, whack em with chip damage and finish with silver lance, rapier, wing spear, killing edge, et cetera.

The Horsemen are also pretty easy to handle: Move someone who doesn't get doubled, like Ogma, on the space DIRECTLY on the bridge. This will provoke the first one, but not the second. Heal Ogma, and then pound on the Horsemen with melee. Leave somebody else who you don't care about/isn't one rounded for the other one.

The boss can be dealt with in a number of ways, but Wing Spear's probably the best one if you don't want to spend any more Excalibur uses: Pried the ridersbane out of Benson's hands with a respectable 18/20 uses [i didn't want to spend any more Excalibur uses: Had used 3 already] and let Cord snag the boss kill.

Turncount: 19 turns. Might have been able to pick up the pace a bit during the middle bit when there was no action going on whatsoever, but still, a VERY good time. At least I think so.

5 Marth: 22 HP, 7 str, 8 spd, 8 def

5 Cain: 23 HP, 10 str, 8 spd, 7 def [also finally at D lances]

5 Abel: 23 HP, 9 str, 11 spd, 9 def

5 Cord: 23 HP, 9 str, 12 spd, 5 def

5 Julian: 19 HP, 5 str, 14 spd, 4 def

Merric obviously joins the fun: But he's still base.

C5: I hate this chapter. I really do. Let's start with the fun part: Body count.

Every member of the Zagaroguard not named Zagaro died. I'm going to be honest: I really don't know how you're going to protect more than two of them from rapage. I'm asking here because it's probably going to come in handy for future runs.

Barst, Jagen, and Ogma all sacrificed themselves for the better good: I actually had to warp Barst and Jagen to keep Zag from dying. Ogma died baiting the armors.

The main problem here is with keeping the Orleans gang from getting raped, and I can't go too much into detail strategically on that one point as I suck at it, but I will say the chapter's quite easy once that's all done and over with. Just Javelin+Wing Spear the remnants of the army before the reinforcements swarm: I wasn't lucky enough to do this but still put in a nice turncount.

Oh, and it's a good idea to buy a Fire Tome for Wendell for a few reasons: A: He has some minor hit issues against the boss, and B: The lower MT makes it easier to get him within kill damage while still doing very solid damage [Two rounds of Thunder will kill him so you want to thread careful to make sure the boss kill EXP gets distributed to someone who actually needs it]

Turncount: 16. Not bad. Not bad at all.

Main Team:

6 Marth: 23 HP, 7 str, 9 AS, 8 def

6 Cain: 24 HP, 10 str, 9 AS, 7 def

6 Abel: 24 HP, 9 str, 11 AS, 9 def

6 Cord: 24 HP, 9 str, 12 AS, 5 def

3 Merric: 21 HP, 1 mag, 9 AS, 5 def

Julian wasn't deployed, so he's the same. Castor, Riff, and a generic archer I reclassed to Cleric in C4 sat out.

Edited August 9, 2009 by Norton Sez What?

[Rodykitty]

I think what's most surprising in this run is Julian getting to level 5 somehow.

And Ch. 5 is definitely rough. I remember being unable to save Hardin and needing to use Jeigan for later Horse slaying purposes. I'm sure there's a way to keep them all alive floating around somewhere on the 'net (inb4linktostrat).

Next time I play H5, Jeigan is flying over the Silver Lance for Hardin and other items for the Wolfguard.

Edited August 9, 2009 by Rody

[Quasar]

If you shove the Wolfguard in the bottom right corner area and move your other troops close to the river the Cavaliers and Archers come to you instead of the Wolfguard if I recall correctly. There might still be one incoming from the left passage but you can take him out with Draco Jagen or Peg Sheeda (Wing Spear) if you want to save 'em all.

[Balcerzak]

It's like Quasar said: Very definitely doable. (I'm currently on Ch 22 of my H5 100% survival rank playthrough.) It took a couple tries for me to get the strategy down, and may have been RNG/stats/team dependent, but it involved quickly dispatching everybody on the RHS and baiting the people across the bridge to attack your main army, as well as carefully AI manipulating the remainder using Wolfguard positioning and a Draco!Jagen. (Unlike Quasar I didn't go to the bottom right, as IIRC that attracted one of the archers to come down the channel, but I took them somewhere a little to the southwest of their starting position, nestling them around the tree and fort, and only the PK came to bother them, which the Horsemen could handle.) As I did it on the cart, I don't have any saves or videos to illustrate the technique, and it was long enough ago that I can't remember in any more explicit detail than what's already been mentioned. Also some of the recollection may not be fully accurate.

[Dat Nick]

If you shove the Wolfguard in the bottom right corner area and move your other troops close to the river the Cavaliers and Archers come to you instead of the Wolfguard if I recall correctly.

That's some very useful information: I'll be sure to take note of that next playthrough. I had to mass-Genocide most guys to make par for C6x anyway so I'll be fine without the rest of the group this time.

Edit: Chapter 6:

God I love Wendell and his anti-armorness and healing and his 2RKod ness not standing out so much...words just can't express how much easier Wendell makes life in this chapter. Anybody who disses the pope has CLEARLY not seen how helpful he is at...well, just about everything in this chapter. Abel being ridiculously RNG blessed made this chapter go a lot smoother than it probably should have.

Castor died, but his utility was pretty much done anyway. Fed Riff to the mage/archer at the end, I didn't need him anymore with the Pope around. Lot of weapon rank ups: Marth hit C swords, Wendell hit A tomes, Cord C axes [i'll admit I had to waste an extra turn, but it was worth the payoff because I certainly wasn't going to chuck a promoted boss kill onto old man Wendell] Maric D Staves...and C6 and all naturally meant now was a good time for some underlevelled dudes to play "Catch up".

7 Marth: 24 HP, 8 str, 10 AS, 9 def

8 Cain: 26 HP, 12 str, 11 AS, 7 def

8 Abel: 26 HP, 11 str, 13 AS, 10 def

9 Cord: 27 HP, 11 str, 13 AS, 5 def

6 Julian: 19 HP, 6 str, 15 AS, 5 def

2 Zag: 24 HP, 7 str, 12 AS, 8 def

Turncount: Crud, my DS power was running low so I forgot to record it...but it was something like 26-34 turns. Will get a more specific number from the epilogue when that comes.

Edited August 9, 2009 by Norton Sez What?

[Rodykitty]

Zagaro is only level two yet already his durability and AS easily compares to your other units.

And let this playthrough be proof of how amazing Wendell is.

[Dat Nick]

Zagaro is only level two yet already his durability and AS easily compares to your other units.

Yeah: I'm officially convinced that even Hero Zag trivializes basically the whole game.

6x is, as we know, an easy chapter, although the RNG was giving me a good deal of crap [The cavs missed a ridiculous amount of times with 80~ hit rates] which was harder than anything else here, although handaxes are always annoying. So it's not really worth going into detail here.

8 Marth: 25 HP, 8 str, 11 AS, 10 def

9 Cain: 27 HP, 12 str, 12 AS, 7 def [ugh grow DEF already damn you]

9 Abel: 26 HP, 11 str, 14 AS, 10 def

9 Cord: same

7 Julian: 20 HP, 7 str, 15 AS, 4 def

7 Merric: 25 HP, 2 mag, 12 AS, 5 def

3 Zag: 26 HP, 8 str, 13 AS, 9 def

Turncount: 18 turns. Piece of cake! Just a warm-up for C7, though.

[Rodykitty]

Abel has true Thief utility in this game, stealing Kain's stats.

Yeah: I'm officially convinced that even Hero Zag trivializes basically the whole game.

Same here. Makes their tier positions all the more justified.

[Dat Nick]

Chapter 7:

I do know it's probably fully possible to take on the Wyvern and the mercs/archers in Bantu's village at the same time: But it was proving to be too much of a hassle, so I just took it a bit slower and the whole operation went far more smoothly. Having Marth lug Bantu back to the main force got kind of annoying though: And THEN Bantu got critkilled after all that [but I did NOT feel like restarting] Flier utility kind of surprised me here: Clogging that fort in the forests got way easier with Shiida on board, and naturally that in turn made the chapter far easier. I didn't even need the Ridersbane: Heck, I forgot I had the thing [but that's likely for the better as I'm going to want those uses later]

Oh, and this was probably a given, but Excalibur!Wendell rapes armors just as badly as fliers: Boy did that come in handy after I missed that freaking cav THREE TIMES IN A ROW [Wound up using Excalibur to axe the cav and then Wendell ORKOd an armor on the counterattack, which was cool]

But yeah, I'm thinking it would probably be a good idea to Reclass a peg or two for this chapter if nothing else.

9 Marth: 26 HP, 9 str, 12 AS, 11 def

9 Abel: 26 HP, 11 str, 14 AS, 10 def

10 Cain: 28 HP, 12 str, 12 AS, 8 def [yay finally]

11 Cord: 27 HP, 13 str, 13 AS, 6 def

7 Julian: same

8 Merric: same [he got skl, lck, res]

3 Zag: same

Turncount: 20 turns: Not bad, but coulda been faster if I played my cards better.

[Quasar]

Did you remember to kill Est?

[Dat Nick]

I killed all of the Whitewings. Zag snagged the sisters and Marth killed Minerva.

[Rodykitty]

ITT: Wendell is ridiculously awesome.

And killing Est is probably a muscle memory reaction by now.

[Dr. Tarrasque]

I usually clog a second fort with Athena. Lena or a female generic could block a third one if necessary >_>.

[Dat Nick]

C8:

Sadly, Wendell the epic died, but his utility wasn't going to last much longer so I should be good. Athena was used as Horsemen bait.

Clogged up the reinforcements points ASAP, which means this was a fairly easy chapter to clear. The boss was giving me more trouble than anything else [spent a few turns whittling him down before I realized Cord was the only way to kill him efficiently] and even he was pretty easy.

Also went shopping and I'm running into more cash problems than expected: I'm at a measly 5k right now after buying Silvers, but I'm well stocked so I should be able to hold out fine.

Main team:

10 Marth: 27 HP, 9 str, 13 AS, 11 def

11 Cain: 28 HP, 12 str, 12 AS, 8 def

11 Abel: 27 HP, 11 str, 14 AS, 10 def

9 Julian: 22 HP, 9 str, 17 AS, 4 def

10 Merric: 27 HP, 3 mag, 14 AS, 5 def

12 Cord: 29 HP, 14 str, 14 AS, 7 def

4 Zag: 28 HP, 9 str, 14 AS, 10 def

Turncount: 21: As stated, mucked around with the boss a tad too long so could have been shorter, but still, a solid time.

[Don Draper]

Out of curiosity, why did you choose to use Julian in this playthrough instead of somebody who would arguably be more useful such as Barst or Draug? Variety purposes?

[Dat Nick]

Well that, and I always found his thief utility convenient. Take chapters like 14, for example. And, as earlier stated, bumping into some money issues [Although they'll be over by this chapter due to the 15k Bullion] so saving a few extra bucks by being able to sell keys and whatnot does help.

In retrospect it's hard to deny it would be much easier if I was using Ogma instead, but eh, nobody said this had to be a perfect efficiency run, right? I will admit I'm worried about braves, but cross that bridge when it gets here.

[Rodykitty]

If Julian isn't as much as a detriment as everyone thought, then he may see a tier rise.

[Dr. Tarrasque]

If Julian isn't as much as a detriment as everyone thought, then he may see a tier rise.

... Julian's considered a detriment? What the hell?

Edited August 11, 2009 by Sirius

[Dat Nick]

Low Mid is implying he's more trouble than he's worth; As that's around Endgamer area.

Anyway, C9:

Burned through my last warp uses. Also offed Ceasar and Radd. Pirates know how to manipulate the 20 avo boost they get in the water: And that makes chucking handaxes at them annoying. Speaking of which, too many damn handaxes in this chapter. Handaxe!Pirates are REAL annoyances.

Avo is also worth something here, as pirates had 30~ hit on Cain on a fort. Ogma probably would have been very helpful in this chapter as he only needs 1 more spd to double the pirates.

Zag also had an epic moment where he genocided a lot of pirates/hunters when he was on a fort with a handaxe with dodges/crits all over the place.

Oh, and Marth got all tied up with other stuff to do at the start, so I wound up having to go ALLLL the way back to the village to get Jeorge and then ALLLL the way back to the throne to seize it which took up 13 turns. Not good for turncount, but it's not a detriment on efficiency and I beat the chapter without abuse fair and square so I figured "screw it" as Jeorge was going to be far more useful than any generic, even if he gets replaced by Minerva the chapter after next.

Boss died with two barrages of 1-2 range and Marth using the Dragonslayer.

11 Marth: 28 HP, 9 str, 14 AS, 11 def

12 Cain: 29 HP, 13 str, 13 AS, 8 def

11 Abel: same

10 Julian: 23 HP, 10 str, 17 AS, 4 def

13 Cord: 30 HP, 14 str, 15 AS, 7 def

13 Merric: 27 HP, 5 mag, 15 AS, 5 def

5 Zag: 30 HP, 10 str, 15 AS, 11 def

Turncount: Technically 17 as that's when the boss was killed: Actually 30.