H5 playthough log, efficient run v 2.0

[Interceptor]

Chapter 7

Reclassed Sedgar into a Horseman, Wendell into a Dracoknight, and Merric into a Mage.

In order to complete this map as quickly as possible, I had to set some goals for each Turn, and meet them, without fail. My intention here is a full clear of the map, including the White Wings. I also need to recruit Bantu, because I'll need Tiki for an efficient clear later on.

Turn 1: Marth opens the door with a key. I must kill the archers on this turn, and prepare for the Mercs. I kill the archers with a combination of Merric, Cain, Caeda, Wendell, Barst, and Cord (this is the highest number of people that can start close enough to attack). After the archers die, Caeda/Barst/Jagen form up the line to block the Mercenaries.

Turn 2: The Mercs are injured. I have to kill them on this turn, and form a box around squishy people so that they don't get killed by the Draco and two Pegs that have now come close. I use the edge of the map as a natural wall, and put Barst in a corner since he can take two hits.

Turn 3: Kill off the aggressive fliers with effective weapons. Merric blicks one, Cord blicks another, and Caeda/Wendell gang up on the last one, with assistance from Barst. Marth recruits Bantu. Cain and Sedgar go after the Thief.

The rest of the chapter involves setting up a fort-plugging configuration. After everyone is in position, I have Wendell cover the SE, Caeda cover the far west, Jagen cover the center-ish one, and I warp Barst to the fort nearest the boss. There are two javelin Knights there, so I equip Barst with a Hand Axe. Needless to say, with Fort protection and WTA, he rocks them like a hurricane. Meanwhile, Sedgar and Cord plink away at the Whitewings and farm up some EXP.

I finish up the chapter by sending Barst and Caeda towards the boss for the final kill. Jagen covers Caeda's old fort, Abel covers Jagen's, and Ogma runs into the middle to suicide-block the reinforcement cavalier that appears from Barst's fort. Technically I don't need Barst to help kill the boss, since Caeda is ORKO on him, but I'm trying to conserve uses of her PRF by sharing the load with Barst.

It's worth noting that this map could have gone even faster, if I Warped Caeda for a boss kill and then Marth for a Seize. At most, it would have cost me two Knights worth of CEXP. Problem is, I don't have anyone with C Staves except Lena. Wendell is ever so slightly short of it even as a Bishop, and Merric isn't even close. Something to think about for efficient play.

Chapter Turns: 7

Total Turns: 86

Funds: 18,230

Casualties: Ogma.

Unit   Lvl   HP ST MG SK SP LK DF RS  WpnLvl 1       WpnLvl 2

Marth   7.61 23 9  0  6  10 11 7  0   C Swd [......]
Caeda  11.53 22 6  1  14 20 15 9  6   B Lnc [|.....]
Cain    9.69 26 8  0  8  9  6  8  0   D Swd [||||..] D Lnc [||||..]
Abel    4.28 21 7  0  9  9  4  8  0   E Swd [||....] C Lnc [||....]
Jagen   3.21 23 7  1  12 8  1  9  6   A Lnc [      ] D Swd [|||...]
Barst  11.68 32 15 0  9  11 8  9  0   B Axe [......]
Cord    8.62 21 10 0  8  12 6  7  0   D Bow [||....]
Sedgar  2.93 24 7  1  11 12 2  8  2   E Swd [||....] D Bow [||....]

Merric  5.81 23 0  4  5  7  4  4  4   D Tom [|.....]
Lena    6.37 16 0  3  7  9  11 3  10  C Stv [||....]

Wendell is surprisingly effective as a Dracoknight. His STR is nothing to write home about, but he doesn't get weighed down much, and has 15 SPD. He's like a Caeda-lite.

Also, I'm getting pretty fed up with Merric. I'm going too fast for him to get any healing done. I may just leave him as a Mage and deal with the problems inherent with it.

And finally, I have 4 uses of Warp left, which has to last until the start of Ch. 12. I want to save one use for Hammerne, so that gives me three to play with. I'm thinking of using one for Sedgar training in Ch. 8, one in Ch. 9 to get the Silver Bow, and one to bypass some of the terrain in Ch. 11 (I remember that as being a pretty long walk).

Edited December 20, 2009 by Interceptor

[Mekkah]

You only need 18 def on General Sedgar to have him ping all the Ch8 cavalry. I just Warped him there and he got levels for free, pretty much, with no need for babying. And he came out like five levels higher.

[Don Draper]

Tell your Cain to get some strength. And speed.

How much might did you forge on Cord's bow? Forging +5 mt was inexpensive, and really helped him get some exp killing a Dragon or two.

[Interceptor]

Cain's not listening to me, unfortunately. He's turning out mediocre just like last time. And it's not for lack of favoritism or anything, I'm giving him as many kills as I can spare.

I forged +4 mt and +10 HIT onto Cord's iron bow. I didn't want something uber, just something that could OHKO pegs and do decent damage until Steel came. In hindsight, +5mt would have been superior. I'm pretty close to doritos on forge choices for this army, I think.

Chapter 8

Reclassed Sedgar into a General, and Wendell into a Sage.

Sedgar has to be fixed in this chapter. As a General, he has 16 DEF, which is not quite enough to survive the Horseman/Cavalier bomb, but I'll need to make it work. Fortunately, he's at 2.93, so one attack on a Horseman will put him at level 3 and 17 DEF, which I'm going to go ahead and said is the absolute minimum DEF value for this strategy unless you're not getting doubled. I loaded him up with Javelins and Vulneraries, and Warped him just south of the center Horseman fort. I would like to have given him more exposure, but the best position for his bullpen puts Horsemen in range of my other units, which doesn't work for fast turns completion.

While Sedgar was training, Radd bought four javelins and the Wing Spear from the armory, sending the Wing Spear to the convoy for Caeda to pick up from Marth. Caeda picked up her Spear, and flew over the water, while the army moved towards Seize. The only resistance that they ran into were a couple of Archers, Roger, and an Armor. The team made quick work of them, and stayed there to fight reinforcements while Marth ran to Seize.

Caeda can technically ORKO the boss here with her Wing forge, but I don't want to run out of uses before Starsphere and Hammerne, so I used the plain one to 2RKO him. Marth ran up and Seized, with one movement square to spare.

Chapter Turns: 5

Total Turns: 91

Funds: 14,110

Casualties: Jagen, Roger.

Unit   Lvl   HP ST MG SK SP LK DF RS  WpnLvl 1       WpnLvl 2

Marth   7.71 23 9  0  6  10 11 7  0   C Swd [|.....]
Caeda  12.13 23 7  1  15 20 16 9  6   B Lnc [||....]
Cain   10.10 27 9  0  8  9  7  8  0   D Swd [||||..] D Lnc [|||||.]
Abel    4.58 21 7  0  9  9  4  8  0   E Swd [|||...] C Lnc [||....]
Barst  12.13 33 15 0  9  11 8  9  0   B Axe [|.....]
Cord    9.26 21 11 0  8  13 7  7  0   D Bow [|||...]
Merric  6.38 24 0  4  5  8  4  4  4   D Tom [||....]
Sedgar  6.06 36 11 1  8  8  4  20 2   C Lnc [|||||.] E Bow [||....]

Lena    6.86 16 0  3  7  9  11 3  10  C Stv [|||...]

Three uses of Warp left. I don't think that I will use any to recruit Jeorge, since Cord is nowhere near Silver Bows at the moment.

Edited December 20, 2009 by Interceptor

[Interceptor]

Chapter 9

Reclassed Sedgar into a Hero, since this chapter is lousy with axes.

Strategy here was straightforward: send Caeda to kill off the thieves to the east, and retrieve the Wyrmslayer, while everyone else pushed towards Seize. Caeda's path was easy, since she has all the Silver Lances she wants now. The hard part was getting to Seize.

The trick there was finding combinations of units that could take down an enemy, and then just applying the necessary tactics to make it happen. On the first turn I had Julian open the door, and everyone piled through (out of range of the enemies). Second turn, the combination of Cord + Marth took down one Hand Axe enemy, and then Sedgar + Cain took down another. Wendell healed up Cord (Lena is floating in the back with a Physic in case things get hairy), and I got ready to deal with another charge (Cain was Barriered so as to survive the Mage). Third turn saw me take down the Mage (Barst OHKO), Archer (Sedgar + Cain), and Devil Axe Pirate (Cord + Marth). Etc. The combo attack strategy continued all the way to Seize. The important part was to not rush across the bridge, because it's easy to get bogged down or get someone accidentally killed.

Meanwhile, Caeda made quick work of of the Pirate and two Thieves on her side of the map, applying time/space warping hax to put the Wyrmslayer in the Convoy.

This when I regret not having a unit with C Swords. Nobody could use the Wyrmslayer, and it cost me a turn. Well, Marth could use it, but the boss is OHKO on him. Athena would have been nice for this, since with +2 HP over her base stats should could have survived one hit. I would have been able to kill the boss otherwise, but Merric didn't crit with Excalibur, and everyone else missed their indirect attacks. C'est la vie.

Chapter Turns: 7

Total Turns: 98

Funds: 29,110

Casualties: Abel.

Unit   Lvl   HP ST MG SK SP LK DF RS  WpnLvl 1       WpnLvl 2

Marth   8.44 24 9  0  6  10 11 8  0   C Swd [||....]
Caeda  12.98 23 7  1  15 20 16 9  6   B Lnc [|||...]
Cain   11.46 28 10 0  9  10 8  8  0   D Swd [||||..] C Lnc [......]
Barst  12.51 33 15 0  9  11 8  9  0   B Axe [||....]
Cord   10.04 22 12 0  8  14 7  8  0   D Bow [||||||]
Merric  7.08 25 0  4  6  9  5  4  5   D Tom [|||...]
Sedgar  6.26 30 9  1  15 16 4  12 2   D Swd [|||...] E Axe [......]

Wendell 3.04 22 3  4  3  13 2  5  7   B Tom [||....] D Stv [||....]
Lena    7.77 16 0  3  8  9  12 3  11  C Stv [||||..]

I will probably switch Sedgar back to General next chapter, to guard the doorway. Cord's damage output is OK for the time being, I'll decide whether to forge him another bow or to forge Ridersbane when I see how the enemies look next chapter.

Merric I think that I will just keep as a Mage. It's too much of a pain to level him as a Curate, and his RES-hitting chip damage is welcome (I just wish he doubled). I'll have to forge him a Fire tome soon, because Excalibur is getting eaten up pretty quickly.

[Dat Nick]

Seeing as how Zag will likely gain tons of EXP in 10, can one assume he's not in danger of falling below Barst despite cryptic notes from CATS?

[Interceptor]

I think that's a fair assessment of Sedgar's prospects.

He has 20 DEF as a General in my playthrough, which means that things will still hurt him. As far as reinforcements are concerned: Horsemen will do 2x2 to him, Sword cavs will hit for 1x4 (thank god Sedgar has enough SPD to avoid the double here), and Armors will hurt the most at 1x7. However, he's going to level up during this onslaught, and he's basically guaranteed one DEF every time that he does. Hitting level 7 will go a long way towards reducing incoming damage, and hitting level 8 will effectively make him unkillable.

It remains to be seen what happens when the rubber hits the road, and I'll be sure to document how he does, but I'm confident he'll be fine. I'll give him vulneraries, leave a Curate behind to heal him, and use Physic in an emergency. I think that Mekkah's Ch. 8 training strategy basically saved his bacon.

[Mekkah]

Horsemen will do 2x2 to him, Sword cavs will hit for 1x4

Are you sure you didn't forget to take off -3 atk for them not getting their +3 atk bonus from A swords on a lance user?

[Interceptor]

I'm pretty sure I accounted for it. The HM stats list them as having 26-27 ATK, so that's 23-24 ATK after losing weapon bonus, which is 1x4 on Sedgar in the worst case. I don't think he will hit A Lances any time soon, so I don't get the additional -1 on top of that.

We'll see how it plays out, I am just theorycrafting prior to actually doing it.

[Dat Nick]

The HM stats list them as having 26-27 ATK

Huh?

Cav 3 (Steel Sword): 31 (32) HP, 22 atk, 97 (98) hit, 9 (10) AS, 7 (8) def, 0 (1) res, 3 (4) crit

How did you read 26-27 out of that? Not that Hard Mode 8 wouldn't be awesome, mind you, as I'm pretty sure not even Zagaro could trivalize that one, but...

[Don Draper]

I think he's referring to Chapter 10 enemies.

[Dat Nick]

Ah ok. Nvm me then.

[Interceptor]

Chapter 10

Reclassed Sedgar into a General, probably the last time for a while. Radd reclassed into Curate.

This chapter took me a while to work out, because there were multiple things that I needed to do to play efficiently, but not enough manpower to do everything. On top of that, I am still trying to minimize turn counts. I gradually kept adding efficient tactical movements until I squeezed enough performance out to do what I wanted. I'll admit that it was pretty close, if my units were any worse I would have had to give something up (probably Sedgar's training).

Here's how it went down: first turn, after arranging everyone, I moved into position. On turn two, I killed all four cavaliers that had rushed up. It required some trading of my newly forged Ridersbane in order to pull off, but it wasn't too difficult. Sedgar OHKOed the first cav, cord took the Ridersbane and shot another cav, Cain took the Ridersbane from Cord and OHKO'ed the third cav, Merric finished off Cord's target, and Caeda OHKO'ed the fourth cav. No damage taken. Barst had run up the stairs, and OHKO'ed (lol) a Knight on counter with the Hammer.

This is where it splits off into two teams. Team A -- Merric, Sedgar, and Caesar/Radd -- stayed outside the castle to deal with the dracos and pegs. This was a bit of a head-scratcher, because Merric is ORKO'ed by all of these enemies (he can survive one because he OHKOs on counter), but is also the only one who can actually kill them. I solved the dilemma when I realized that non-Merric units that got blicked would get priority, hence Caesar. I moved MErric just out of their range, and killed a Draco on Player Phase. One down. Sedgar moved up to block the pegs from getting close enough, Merric killed the other Draco on Enemy Phase counter. Two down. Caesar moves into position, and Sedgar pulls out a bow and shoots down one of the pegs. Three down. The last peg kills Caesar on Enemy Phase, and I finish it off with Merric while Sedgar runs back toward the castle.

Meanwhile, Team B (everyone else) piled in the castle. Barst, now fully healed, attracted an Archer, the Sniper, and the second Knight. He OHKO'ed the other Knight as expected, and on Player Phase I took out the Archer and Sniper both. The remaining Archer was no issue. I worked my way up towards the back, recruiting Maria in the process, and opened the Hero Door, positioning Caeda to counter with a Silver Lance. She did a ton of damage to the Hero, and Cain/Wendell/Cord finished him off. I run Marth into Minerva's range (recruited on Enemy Phase), and flew Caeda West to deal with the boss.

At this point, Sedgar was standing just outside the castle, with three enemy facings. Radd had healed up Merric by now, and was chain-healing Sedgar as he trained. Disaster struck at one point, when Sedgar unexpectedly critted a Sword cav and let a Horseman get a shot off on Radd (killing him), but I just kept going at that point, since Sedgar's DEF is massive enough to survive. Merric slipped in behind him, taking potshots when it was safe.

Cord, Barst, and Cain played with and killed a couple of Horseman reinforcements that thought they'd be clever and try to slip through the mountains. Caeda ORKO'ed the boss, and Marth walked up to Seize. Fin.

Chapter Turns: 13

Total Turns: 111

Funds: 20,010

Casualties: Caesar, Radd.

Unit   Lvl   HP ST MG SK SP LK DF RS  WpnLvl 1       WpnLvl 2

Marth   8.97 24 9  0  6  10 11 8  0   C Swd [||....]
Caeda  14.55 23 8  1  16 20 18 9  6   B Lnc [|||||.]
Cain   12.08 28 11 0  9  10 8  8  0   D Swd [|||||.] C Lnc [|.....]
Barst  13.48 34 16 0  9  12 8  9  0   B Axe [|||...]
Cord   11.79 22 13 0  8  15 7  9  0   C Bow [......]
Merric  9.65 25 0  5  7  11 6  4  6   D Tom [|||||.]
Sedgar  8.48 40 13 1  10 8  4  23 2   B Lnc [|||...] E Bow [|||...]

Wendell 3.63 22 3  4  3  13 2  5  7   B Tom [|||...] D Stv [|||...]
Lena    8.41 17 0  3  9  9  13 3  11  C Stv [|||||.]

So Sedgar did end up turning out fine after all. He has 15 DEF and 34 HP as a Hero now, which is pretty amazing. I wanted to plant him on the fort near the starting point, since that has self-healing, higher DEF/avo, more enemy facings, and closer proximity to the reinforcements, but I could not get him over there fast enough, due to needing a tank to protecting Merric. But Merric as a Mage paid off big time in this chapter, though, so I am fine with it.

Cain is probably going to get the Speedwing, since he's a waste of space currently, with his not-doubling and his lame mt from low weapon rank and STR.

That leaves the fate of the Master Seal, which I will probably give to Caeda, strange as it sounds. I was expecting to give it to Barst, but Caeda is ahead of him in levels at the moment, and I want him to grow a bit first. My thinking here is that the freedom for her to switch from Draco->Paladin->Swordmaster as the situation dictates will be useful. She can easily ORKO the Manakete boss in Ch. 11, for example, or fly east as a Draco and murder the Mercs (she can reach them on the first turn, ORKOs all with a Silver Lance, and gets 4-5 rounded back, roffles). With the Robe, she can even survive a direct hit from Arrowspate.

Feel free to weigh in if anyone has an opinion.

Edited December 23, 2009 by Interceptor

[CATS]

Seems like you're doing really well, agree with your decisions for the resources and such.

[Dat Nick]

Merric 9.65 25 0 5 7 11 6 4 6 D Tom [|||||.]

Wendell 3.63 22 3 4 3 13 2 5 7 B Tom [|||...] D Stv [|||...]

Seems to me like the Pope's starting to wear off his novelty. When do you plan on dropping him?

[Interceptor]

I think that I will probably drop him when I get Boah, unless he hits C-staves before then (which would make Boah redundant, since they are equally durable but Wend is faster). Wendell's ability to reclass as a promoted unit is losing its usefulness now that I have Minerva as a filler and I'm starting to get Master Seals. Probably his last contribution as a serious utility unit will be Ch. 12.

I still need to hang on to a couple of B Staff users though, since the chances of Merric being able to use Recover before the heat death of the universe are probably nil. This lack of time to raise Staff rank is having the weird effect of not only making Lena useful, but also making promoting her a non-stupid idea.

EDIT: actually, Wendell is a Sage right now. He gets a boost to Staff rank if I switch him to Bishop, which currently puts his rank at C, while still maintaining B Tomes. He's unequivocally better than Boah now, so I guess Boah dies in Ch. 12, and Wendell has utility all the way to the end of the game. Sorry, dude.

Edited December 23, 2009 by Interceptor

[Interceptor]

Chapter 11

Reclassed Sedgar into a Hero, Maria into a Peg Knight, Merric into a Curate (he's just healing and Barrier spamming on this map), and Wendell into a Bishop. Barst promoted (I'll explain why below), and class-changed into a Hero. Forged a Fire tome with +7 mt on it, making it slightly worse than EKUSUKARIBA. Gave the Speedwing to Cain.

The dilemma in this chapter was trying to balance speed with resource collection. Beating this chapter by taking the long way would have easily pushed my turn count to twelve or more, as I walked everyone around the mountain, and smashed my way through the forts and ballisticians. Short-circuiting it is easy, Dracoknight Caeda can reach and ORKO the Seize tile enemy on Turn 1 (and Marth can be Warped for the Seize), but then you miss out on two stat boosters, Jake, and CEXP. My compromise solution got all of the stat boosters, killed everything but the ballisticians and four of the Mercs, recruited Jake, and wrapped up in six turns.

On the first turn, I send Wendell, Cain, and Sedgar northeast, towards Linde and the Mercenaries. This chapter is entirely self-improvement for them, they have no impact on the outcome. Minerva flew in the same direction, hovering within range of Anna's house so that should could move in at the right time. Everyone else fell back, in order to draw the two enemy pegs into range.

Once the pegs drew closer, I put Caeda and Cord at the edge of their range, and Warped Barst on top of a fort near the Seize tile, holding a Hand Axe. He is able to survive the four units that can attack him, and most of them had awful HIT rates on him, some less than 50%. The pegs ignored him as expected, and killed/injured themselves on Cord and Caeda. Barst's Hero SPD enabled him to double all but the Horseman, and since the cavs had Lances, he had high accuracy and a very consequential Enemy Phase as a result.

With one peg down and most of the mounted units around Barst dead or dying, the next turn I had Cord finish off the last peg, and moved Caeda and Maria into Jake's attack range. The purpose of this is to allow Caeda to get inside of his range without getting shot, because Jake always prioritizes Maria first, presumably because her avoid and HP/DEF are bad (I tried this 10 times to make sure it was not a fluke). On my final run, i turns out that Maria avoided the shot. Who knew.

Anyway, the full-health Caeda next flew up and OHKO'ed the enemy on the Seize tile. Barst moved to stand on top of it, and the +2 DEF and +20 avoid allowed him to survive and injure the Sniper on Enemy Phase. Caeda doubled + killed him on the next Player Phase with her Silver Lance, and Barst moved next to her to block the Manakete boss and injure him on EP with a Silver Axe. On the final turn, I had Barst finish off the Manakete, Caeda recruit Jake, and Marth get Warped for the Seize.

The self-improvement team managed to kill a Thief and three Mercs before the clock ran out. Sedgar missed the only attacks he made, but at least he got WEXP.

Chapter Turns: 6

Total Turns: 117

Funds: 15,360

Casualties: None.

Unit   Lvl   HP ST MG SK SP LK DF RS  WpnLvl 1       WpnLvl 2

Marth   8.97 24 9  0  6  10 11 8  0   C Swd [||....]
Caeda  15.04 23 8  1  17 20 19 9  6   B Lnc [|||||.]
Cain   12.88 28 11 0  9  12 8  8  0   D Swd [||||||] C Lnc [|.....]
Barst   2.61 36 18 1  18 18 8  13 3   B Axe [|||||.] D Swd [......]
Cord   12.19 22 13 0  8  15 8  9  0   C Bow [|.....]
Merric 10.61 25 0  5  7  11 7  4  6   D Tom [|||||.]
Sedgar  8.48 34 11 1  17 16 4  15 2   D Swd [||....] E Axe [|.....]

Wendell 3.87 22 1  3  3  13 2  5  10  B Tom [......] C Stv [|.....]
Lena    9.54 17 0  3  9  10 14 3  11  C Stv [|||||.]

I reclassed Merric back into a Mage for the end-chapter stats. Items left to distribute at some point: Seraph Robe, Energy Drop, Spirit Dust, Goddess Icon. Amazingly, Caeda hasn't really needed the Seraph Robe in this playthrough to speed up completion, which is why I still have it. I have a feeling, however, that once I promote her to Dracoknight, the added DEF will make the Robe an attractive option for her.

Barst barely 2RKO'ed the Manakete... but I am not too worried about it. Jake could have finished him off or otherwise weakened him first (does 4 damage with Arrowspate), or I could have used Caeda and burned an extra turn, or I could have gotten Barst to A Axes earlier and used Hauteclere perhaps. A forge would have also done the trick, albeit expensively.

[CATS]

So once again we see Barst raping face and Zagaro doing nothing worth mentioning.

[grandjackal]

I had the weirdest thought on chapter 10, and how to make it quite quick.

Requires 2 door keys (or a master key set) in storage, along with possibly a Mend Staff (though I don't think you can buy them, meaning the one you had since chapter 3 has to last that long). Marth should have a couple vulneries on him.

Basically warp him into Maria's cell to her right, talk to her. Have her stay north of him to pull out a door key to open her own cell, along with pulling out that mend staff. Marth opens the door to the hero, sits there to take hte hero one on one while Maria helas him and he sucks down vulneries. Now you have the back way completely open and Minerva recruited without trouble. Obvious problem is that it requires Marth to be able to take the shots from the hero, as I'm sure the hero doubles him. Of course, you'd also have to time this warp so that the fliers who go with Minerva don't just turn direction and attack Marth, cause I'm sure that Minerva moves last, so she can't just take them on like that in Marth's place. If he can though, saves turns of having to have him rummage throught he fortress and through those pillars.

Speaking of Minerva, did you not recruit her? Cause giving her the speedwing could have her doubling as her class. If you're afraid of long-term applications, when braves start showing up you could switch her to Sniper afterwards for 20 AS, which doubles the paladins. Dracos are taken care of due to bows. Though I suppose rank would be a problem...

As for Wendell, it seems he's merely a speed away from 14, which doubles your common threats for quite a few chapters.

Just a couple pieces of food for thought. Excellent work though, bravo.

[Todasmile]

In.

Cr.

Edible.

While I'm here stuck on level... 5? Or six... the annoying one with the hallway, you're blowing through the game like nobody's business!

I think that some of my problems are: Haven't gotten a forger Wing Spear for Caeda, which is strange since I normally do. I tried her as a mage for a chapter, wasted a Fire forge. She was reliable ORKOing, but she just seemed to do better as a Peg. I'm not sure why...

Another part of the reason could be that I missed Merric, and therefore Wendell, Jagen died, and a whole slew of other things. MY main problem with Jagen was chapter 4. He was the only one who could stop the Thief from getting to the village in time, but every single time, he'd get murdered by the calvalry charge. I dunno... Heck, it took my entire team and some fancy chokepointing to kill that upper area by the lake off!

Judging by how many times my team has been completely wiped out on this chapter, maybe it'd be better to restart...

You know, not only has this topic rekindled my enthusiasm for SD, it also has gotten me thinking... why hasn't a Drafting Tournament been done for SD yet?

[Luftwaffe]

Speaking of Minerva, did you not recruit her? Cause giving her the speedwing could have her doubling as her class. If you're afraid of long-term applications, when braves start showing up you could switch her to Sniper afterwards for 20 AS, which doubles the paladins. Dracos are taken care of due to bows. Though I suppose rank would be a problem...

ctrl+f Minerva

[Don Draper]

Why the decision to forge the Fire tome? Bolganone comes next chapter with the same might, and they're buyable for a much cheaper price in Chapter 15.

[grandjackal]

Why the decision to forge the Fire tome? Bolganone comes next chapter with the same might, and they're buyable for a much cheaper price in Chapter 15.

I think the only explanation is that he has bolganone might that lasts almost twice as long before he actually has Bolganon, along with being more accurate, having less weight (Bolganon weighs 4, which weighs down any sage by 1, which could be the difference between his borderline speed Wendell doubling and not doubling). Basically forging a fire is having a Bolganone that lasts twice as long. While it's expensive (4,200), it's basically 2 Bolganones, of which the cost would be 3,380. 820 gold difference isn't THAT bad, especially since the forge would have accuracy and manageable weight.

You could say he could forge the bolganone, but that would be absurdly expensive in comparison.

Makes me wonder just how bad a second-wheel mage would have it if they could basically start doing Bolganone magic damage...

[Don Draper]

By the time you can buy Bolganone's, they are half price with Silver Card. Also, with the speed that he's flying through chapters, Bolganone should be able to last him until they are buyable. The uses shouldn't be too much of an issue because of this. Finally, Merric isn't doubling at this point anyways, so I can't see the weight being much of a factor. If it is, forging -1 weight on it costs next to nothing.

[grandjackal]

By the time you can buy Bolganone's, they are half price with Silver Card. Also, with the speed that he's flying through chapters, Bolganone should be able to last him until they are buyable. The uses shouldn't be too much of an issue because of this. Finally, Merric isn't doubling at this point anyways, so I can't see the weight being much of a factor. If it is, forging -1 weight on it costs next to nothing.

Mainly cause 4 weight on 0 Str is 4 speed gone, which for Maric could end up breaking deals on faster enemies. Taking a counter safely is nice, after all.

I suppose at this point in the game though, it is a bit silly. Could have given it to Wendell when he was doubling (though nicely, he could once more if he procs a speed).

Ok fine, they're pretty minor points.