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Prologue - 3 FE4 Ranked log


chrysalid

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I started up an FE4 game with the intention of doing a AAAA ranked log. After I got to chapter 4 my enthusiasm to play, much less to keep a good log, just went out the window, and my log notes start looking like crap. I managed to slog through chapter 5 with terrible ad hoc strategy as my log notes stopped completely and I'm at a dead stop for Chapter 6. Still, I think my Prologue-3 notes are fine so I might as well post them.

First thing I'll say is that Brighton's AAAA ranked attempt a few pages back in this subforum have the chapter turn estimates correct. It's a good template if you want to give this a shot.

My intended pairings were:

Lex/Aira

Midir/Aideen

Levin/Tiltyu

Claude/Fury

Dew/Brigid

Holyn/Sylvia

All of these are pretty obvious except Holyn/Sylvia, which is just to get more arena levels on Leen. Moot point for this truncated log. Dew/Brigid needs almost every turn of Ch4 and Ch5 adjacent, even playing at a slow ranked pace, so it has downsides even though Dew will hit level 30 for the XP rank.

Also let me state how I did the arena: I didn't use savestates, but I did abuse reloading, and even more often I would abuse repeatedly fighting from 1 HP until I got the lucky breaks I needed to win a fight. If I restarted a chapter completely I had to redo the arena from scratch (which happened once in chapter 2 I think), so I didn't go crazy for low-probability wins unless it was something a particular character really needed to promote or something.

I sometimes do some slight RNG manipulation by reloading a turn and doing things in a different order, usually so that I can give the right person a boss kill for an item.

I can't do any tricks to prevent getting a loss if someone dies (like shutting off the emulator or something). My only option for repairing a loss is a total restart of a chapter.

I also used a frameskip key constantly to reduce tedium, so this is all kinda tool-assisted.

So let's begin:

Prologue - Target turns ~15

Goals: Azel, Ardan, Alec, Noishe and Fin get as much money and XP as possible without wrecking turns, ordered by priority. Fin gets the speed ring so he can ORKO archers with Cuan's steel lance in Ch1.

Play notes:

Ardan is positioned to get most of the enemies around the easternmost town, including an archer and a L10 hand axe brigand (which takes him until nearly the last turn to kill).

I play risky with Azel in the north so he can rescue the village for the full 5000 and also kill most of the enemies. Lex sneaks in and kills the mountain thief closest to the castle so Ardan can eventually get most of the gold out of that village, and later Lex chips another mountain thief (which would have taken the northeastern town if Azel hadn't closed it) that will eventually wander over to Ardan's town for more Ardan XP. Azel generally moves forward as much as possible so he can get at more enemies before the Sigurd/Cuan force attracts them.

Sigurd, Noish and Alec move in a S-SW direction with Sigurd getting as few kills as possible. I delay slightly so the Cuan-Fin-Ethlin group can catch up to them before I start fighting around the first castle. I get lucky with a continued javelin attack on the first castle boss from Cuan, allowing Alec to finish him off. Sigurd seizes the castle, Midir chips the speed ring town mountain thief so Fin can take it without having to eat a counter.

Lex kills the NW mountain thief and gets the town gold which his elite ass will never need, but no one else will ever get up there,

After running Alec through the church I set up a defensive line in the west-central town and surrounding trees to receive the first wave of attackers from across the bridge and I have plenty of player phase offense to finish them off. Sigurd hangs back a turn to get the silver sword while I position Azel as the only person in move-attack range of another l10 hand axe brigand for more hit XP.

Eventually I wipe out the second wave of enemies and I'm able to get Azel in range to take the boss kill on turn 15 (from the right side of the castle) and Sigurd seizes (if Azel hasn't proc'd a HP up by now the boss can 1HKO him, but I had him at level 4).

Final XP: 

Sigurd 663
Noish  521
Alec   510
Ardan  543 
Fin    326 + speed ring
Cuan   536
Midir  364
Azel   544 
Lex    674
Ethlin 265

Turns: 15

Ch 1 - Target turns ~35-40

Goals: Same as prologue, except Azel gets almost nothing here after the first few turns while Ardan gets a special mission to kill a few trashy level 1 steel lance horse mans. Noish gets the skill ring, Diedre gets the magic ring, Hand Axe probably goes to Azel who can virtually take some of Lex's needless money.

Pre-notes:

I have to depend on luck for Dew to survive the 5-6 turns of possibly getting OHKO'd at 4% hit it will take to get everyone over there (~85% chance to survive). If he levels and gets a defense or a HP he's a 2RKO. I could just have him run but I prefer the XP and money.

Ardan can get 7 hits and 3 kills on the L1 steel lance cavaliers that come from the NW after you seize Aira's town - if he has 14 str, 14 def, and a slim sword or base str and a steel sword, and he doesn't miss an attack at low 90% hit. If he hasn't proc'd a defense by now (at 40%) it's maybe one or two.

With 15 str and a slim sword Ardan has a 2HKO against the 6th arena fight, making it quite possible (you can also just hold down a turbo button + fast forward and brute force it from 1 HP - Ardan can afford to repair the damage this will do to the slim sword later with his pursuit ring money). No chance to win the last fight.

Aira is much easier to recruit on hard AI because you can be assured she'll attack nihil Alec's low defense rather than suiciding on/meteor swording Cuan or Sigurd or whatever random thing normal AI does.

Deidre needs 16 base magic + the magic ring to be able to get past the Ch1 arena swordfighter (after you warp/return her back from the final boss). That's +2 from base, with a 70% growth. With at least 1 level from silence, 1 from the 3 pre-swordsman arena fights, and 1 from sneaking in kills it's about a 50/50 chance. If she can beat the swordsman she'll clear the arena. You should probably burn an extra silence if she has a chance for 16. She doesn't need Sigurd to give her money if she manages it (although there is a tiny possibility she won't get the 20 natural mag needed to clear the chapter 2 arena even with 16 at the end of ch 1).

Lex needs 12 strength to 2HKO the swordsman in the arena (needs hero axe too).

Play notes:

Ardan gets a slim sword, Alec gets Sigurd's steel sword and an iron lance, Noish gets Fin's iron lance, Fin takes Cuan's steel lance and gets a javelin, Cuan gets Sigurd's iron lance, and Sigurd takes an iron sword.

Ardan is just over level 7 and has 14 strength and a nice 16 defense coming out of the arena pre-turn 1, good enough to get several kills on the lance knights that will come from the NW. He moves south with the main force at first to grab a kill before doubling back.

Dew gives all of his cash to Aideen and starts playing OHKO roulette on turn 2.

I use Cuan to counter-chip most of the guys in Kinbois' army so everyone can get kills in player phase. Azel gets the Hand Axe kill while Alec, Cuan and Sigurd move to take Aira's castle. Cuan is positioned to counter all three axe guys with a javelin inside Sigurd's leadership stars. Next turn Alec and Cuan kill off two of the axe guys while Sigurd moves to Silver sword the castle boss; Aira obligingly attacks Alec. Her recruitment goes easily after that.

Meanwhile Dew has positioned himself so the mountain thief is between him and the Captain which spares him a couple of turns of OHKO danger. He's also stolen 12000 gold by the time the cavalry arrives (literally) and wipes out that wave of enemies, 5000 gold from the mountain thief, 2000 from the captain and 1000 from 5 bandits.

Turn 8-9: I check and see a chance for Ardan's slight defense blessing to let him get 4 kills instead of 3 on the lance knights, so I take it. 8 Hits and 4 kills, although there was risk as he had about a 5% chance to miss a slim sword ambush counter, two of which would have gotten him killed. 8 hits + 4 kills on L1 enemies for level 7 Ardan is 96 XP, not too shabby.

I consider letting Azel take the skill ring since he's in range (this is a slower pace than I usually take the chapter) but I stick with the plan to let Noish get it. Azel is done for the chapter and he starts trudging down to the untouched SW village for money. Sigurd seizes Gandalf's castle.

Ethlin starts returning non-Lex cavalry units back while trudging through the woods to Jamka so they don't block up movement so badly (also to get levels on Ethlin). I have to waste a couple of turns letting Jamke's bandits arrange themselves so I can have Aideen talk to Jamka without anyone having to risk tanking Jamke for a turn.

Deidre appears and I spend a few turns moving towards the final castle while Lex fetches his hero axe. Deidre silences the boss as soon as she's in range. I accidentally risked a 3HKO on Aira at 11 hit here vs. 3 archers which made me ill given that I was 30 turns into the map.

I have to burn a second silence due to Aira not triggering enough meteor swords and Deidre missing 95 hit Aura shots to clear out the archers faster. Dew takes the opportunity to rob the silenced boss after the archers are mopped up. Sigurd weakens the boss to single digit HP with the silver sword and Deidre finishes for the magic ring. I spend a couple of turns before seizing to finish Return/Warping units to hit the arena (Deidre, Jamke and Aira clear it, Lex gets to 7, Dew gets to 3, Ethlin gets to 7 via lucky crits with 12 skill at level 9).

Siggy seizes on turn 35


Final XP:

Sigurd 1211
Noishe 1009 + skill ring
Alec    905 (speed and strength blessed like crazy, +2 and +2 over averages)
Ardan   857
Fin     840
Cuan   1080
Midir   794
Azel    758 
Jamka   858
Lex    1100
Dew     405
Deidre  946
Ethlin  922
Aira    983
Aideen  880

Turns:35

Ch 2 - Target turns ~40

I followed all the advice Brighton gave me for this chapter.

Goals:

Once again try to focus XP on Arden, Azel, Dew.

Diedre needs to staff abuse to low 20s and Ethlin needs to staff abuse to high 20s - they'll switch primary healer duty after the big mid-chapter double back to the canyon. Dew ideally gets the return ring, Azel gets the shield ring. Barrier ring is for whoever is around at that point, I have no preference. Aideen gets the bargain ring.

Turn efficiency is vital here until you've secured the bargain ring town, it can easily get pillaged away if you don't go all out (then you're back to normal slow tactics to prevent losses).

Pre-notes:

This is a slightly less dangerous chapter in terms of probabilities but there are a lot of complications.

To get Ethlin back from the northern castle to home base quickly, Lachesis will actually get the Return staff first (and sell her Live for Deidre to take), return Ethlin, Levin, and Sylvia, then sell the return staff at the northern castle for Ethlin to rebuy. Aideen and Ethlin swap healing staves so Ethlin can have a relive.

We also want Dew to get the first magic sword quickly, so Ethlin sells it in Lachesis' castle after getting it from Diedre. Dew has plenty of cash on hand from stealing a lot in Chapter 1 even after he gave Aideen all of his starting cash. He should also have the thief sword convo with Lachesis on the same turn.

Ardan is really good in this chapter, he gets his pursuit ring and doubles the lance enemies in the late "canyon" fights for a 2RKO with a slim sword and with correct planning he can get a lot of kills via ambush. Milk it as much as possible.

Holyn is a bit overlevelled after clearing the arena so he's staying in the castle to be the warp/return target. He and Sylvia will then get as many adjacent turns as I can manage after she clears as much arena as prayer will allow.

The earlier you take Augusty, the more turns Levin has to save the bargain ring which is gone at the end of turn 15 if the mountain thief isn't killed. Turn 10 is probably about the earliest it can be done and without a lot of luck with charges/continues/criticals/big shield Sigurd will have to get the barrier ring (not that important at this point, realy). If you wait until turn 12 Levin has to either 1-round every mountain thief on the way to the bargain ring as well as the last one (unlikely w/o RN abuse) or ignore them and let a lot of gold get destroyed, and possibly the cutter sword as well. If Augusty is taken on turn 10 then Levin has enough time to kill all the mountain thieves even with no 1RKOs.

After turn 15 you can slow down the map as much as you want, there are no more ticking clocks aside from the tactics rank.

Voltz has continue and can ruin your day if you forget it.

Don't forget to do the Beowulf/Lachesis love convo for stat bonuses.

After the second castle is seized Azel heads along the clear northern route to the area above where Zyne will spawn, as does Aideen. Dew, Jamke, and Aira head to collect money from the towns (Aira will get the cutter sword and return it to the second castle to pawn it for Ardan/possibly Beo and Alec to use in the arena. Jamke and Dew head to a spot where they can shoot down into the melee of Zyne's units.

After Zyne appears there's a spot where Azel can stand where he will get attacked by two arch knights on the first turn Zyne's units start moving (can be the turn they appear). Zyne won't reach Azel that turn, and if Azel has 12 magic (he should) he will ORKO both of the arch knights with zero risk. Shield ring Azel can safely zap away at Zyne after the other two arch knights are lured away if Aideen is healing him and he might kill him over multiple turns (depends on enemy healing).

Zyne's army goes in this turn order: Arch Knights, Axe Knights, Lance Knights, Troubadors, Zyne

Arena stuff:

Sword units need 12 speed to tie the swordfighter with a slim sword (preventing pursuit), 14 with a steel/silver sword. 13+slim to tie the post-Holyn Forrest, 16 steel/silver.

Bow units need 13 speed + killer bow to tie the sniper.

You need 26 attack power to 2HKO the thunder mage, 31 to 2HKO the swordfighter.

Beowulf can clear the arena if he gets the speed ring somehow (needs cutter and slim sword in the pawn shop too). Pawn-pass him Lach's thief sword before the Zyne fight and warp him back to the home castle at the very end of the map?

If Azel gets lucky and has 15 magic and the shield ring he might be able to get past the swordsman using the arena in the NW castle, which would let him get to rank 7 in the arena (if he also has 13 speed) using a thunder tome. Not likely. He has a 2HKO vs. a 3HKO, but the enemy has pursuit and about 75 accuracy against Azel's 65, so it would require significant RN hammering one way or the other.

Play notes:

Rescuing Lachesis' knights is detailed, you need to figure it out tile by tile and it will swing on single points of HP and defense (and so will be slightly different every playthrough). I've done stuff like reusing the same rote strategy as my last PT and watched Fin get killed by an exact-HP KO from the silver lance guy, sigh. Lex is the fulcrum this time.

Dew needs to be the most forward of any 6-move unit so he can get in on the second group of enemies (the return ring fight) easily with the light sword.

Azel probably wants to be the most forward 5 but it's less important than the above. Ardan should be last as you can easily delay a turn or two before he needs to be in the canyon.

The rescue of Lachesis goes smoothly and Cuan kills the silver lance guy the next turn, Ethlin sells the light sword and Sigurd recruits Lach.

Next turn Dew buys the light sword Ethlin leaves in the pawn shop then talks to Lachesis to deliver the thief sword in the same turn. Two turns later Dew gets the return ring. I manipulated RNs slightly by reloading and taking the turns in a different order, the big shield skill is too goofy for me to treat it fairly.

Midir gets a nasty charge and killer bow crit to kill the barrier ring boss on turn 10 after Cuan softened it slightly. Sigurd seizes after Alec and Fin cut through the javelin armors. 10 turns means I don't have to take any risks to get the bargain ring.

Levin kills the mountain thief sacking the bargain ring village on turn 15, the last one possible. He didn't get a single continue or critical hit on any of the mountain thieves to ORKO.

Cuan is positioned to counter Voltz as he comes into range. Cuan eats two pretty nasty steel blade hits when Voltz gets a continue, but next turn Fin hits him with a javelin and a (healed) Cuan silver lances him down for the Elite ring.

Fin, Cuan and Azel are positioned to counterhit the armor knight force around the northern castle and everything but the less-threatening sword armors are killed the next turn. Sigurd, Midir, Dew and Azel cooperate to kill the boss on turn 18 (seize on 19 after Azel moves out of the way), Dew procs his first strength improve on level 7, up to a mighty 4. Azel gets the shield ring (I use turn order manipulation again).

Levin is Return-ed back by Lachesis (who has been hanging back so her paladins don't get too involved in the fighting) on turn 18 and starts walking up towards the mountain path north of the home castle on turn 19 after he clears the arena. Deirdre stops warp spamming on turn 18 (well, she gets one last shot on holyn 5 move from the home castle) and starts walking towards the canyon to be healer, using Lachesis' Live staff.

Lach returns Ethlin on turn 19, Sylvia turn 20, and sells the Return staff on turn 21.

Ardan got the pursuit ring a few turns previous, forgot to note it.

I go on and off with Holyn + Sylvia adjacent starting on turn 21. I only need them together for about 35-40 turns total for them to pair at the end of Chapter 9 so sometimes I will let Sylvia get castle healing so she can use prayer in the arena.

Canyon fight is messy, having to bait ballista and other silly AI tricks. Aira gets the cutter and starts walking back to the NW castle to pawn it. Dew and Jamke collect other towns, Levin kills Fury's poor escort and then recruits her in the mountain pass. Lach finishes the arena on turn 27.

Beowulf is in a good position to safely get the sleep staff kill after Midir chips the boss, so I take it.

Sigurd seizes Mackily on turn 31. Azel was in position with Aideen on the NE corner of the plateau on turn 30ish, Dew and Jamke still aren't in the right spot after detouring around the sleep staff zone, so they may have been a tactical bust. 31 turns is also starting to feel pretty long when I want to clear on 40ish.

Azel counterkills two arch knights when Zyne's army spawns and then moves to a position where Zyne but not the second two arch knights will attack him next turn. Aideen heals him to full.

Big Arena Turn 32: Sigurd moves away from Mackily; Fin finishes the arena with the hero lance and sells his speed ring. Fury enters the arena and enrages me with 2 straight 0 increase level-ups but clears it with her slim lance. Beowulf enters, sells the sleep staff, buys Fin's speed ring, and clears the arena with a slim sword (have to brute force Keimos from 1 HP for 10 tries or so). My Midir only has 12 speed at level 14 (about 2 points cursed) so he really has no chance againt the sniper without a speed ring, so I sell it from Beo and rebuy it. It's pretty wasteful for only one fight but Midir isn't close to being able to afford a turn with the elite ring at the beginning of chapter 3 and by the end everyone will be at or near 50k via the chapter 3 pirate gold orgy.

Big Arena Turn 32 cont: Lex has the 15 strength he needs to 2HKO the swordfighter now so he fights up to Keimos, who I don't try. Finally Cuan enters and clears it with the elite ring on - he has to brute force Keimos for about 20-30 fights, so thank goodness for having a frameskip button set.

Fury visits the last couple of towns on the plateau.

Zyne attacks Azel in enemy phase after his troubadors have already used their turn - he misses, while Azel has 100 hit and doubles him with thunder. Zyne then canters to a position where Azel has a 100% safe shot to kill him, so he does. That was an ideal series of events for Azel, if Zyne's attack had hit I'd have had to play conservatively and move Azel away to get healed. Azel obviously gets the horseslayer.

Small Arena Turn 33: Aira finally reaches the NW castle (I accidentally overshot the edge of the plateau) and sells the cutter, which Ardan uses to advance one last arena fight. Ethlin promotes and clears the arena.

A bunch of axe knights inexplicably suicide on hero axe Lex, who I thought was just taking up space in a defensive line. Cuan was standing right next to him with less defense and WTD. AI weirdness - this is even the "hard" AI setting. Dew gets a couple of light sword kills on troubadors weakened for him by Fin, Jamka gets absolutely nothing telling me I wasted a lot of turns moving him to the vicinity.

Nothing is left of Zyne's army on turn 36, just some armor javelins, the ballistas and the boss now.

Nothing but the boss is left on turn 38. Noishe gets the kill on 39, Sigurd seizes.

Knight Ring received~~~

Final XP:

Sigurd  1689
Noish   1413
Alec    1446
Ardan   1194
Fin     1529
Cuan    2020
Midir   1529
Levin   1109
Holyn   1432
Azel    1153
Jamka   1254
Beowulf 1450
Lex     1894
Dew      798
Deirdre 2564
Ethlin  2668
Lach     657
Aira    1269
Fury     912
Sylvia   666
Aideen  1000

Turns: 39

Ch 3 - Target turns ~35

Goals:

Cap Deirdre with Warp before seizing the first castle; Cap Ethlin before finishing the map (via normal use); Promote Fin and get him a silver lance; Promote Lachesis. Do the hero sword, Gae Bolg, earth sword, and Ichival convos. Get the wind sword, wing clipper, and restore staff. Finish the Aideen/Midir pairing.

This level is the Dew show. He gets the pursuit, elite, and magic rings so he can do serious damage with the light sword. At first he's only going to fight the javelin armors to the right of the home castle (Lex will help with some chips). He'll then kill a couple of village-looting pirates and take the +3 strength village. After the pirates attack he's going to block the northern land bridge and methodically kill most of Pizarl's squad, wait for Pizarl to go back to his castle to make a new squad, and then kill Pizarl to get the leg ring to shave a few turns off of his trip to the wind sword. He is handing off cash to others during any free turns.

Lachesis needs to Return spam to promotion after talking to Eltshan.

Arden and Azel will try to get to ~15 by hook or crook so they can promote before Chapter 4 begins using the Elite ring in the arena (Azel finally gets access to a wind tome). Azel can ORKO armor enemies with Elfire and Arden gets access to the hero sword, which works well with his strength. Promoted Azel is a great unit with Elwind and can cap pretty easily; Arden will need more tricks.

We want every character that can't staff spam to have gold in the upper end of 40k by the end of the level, primarily using Dew and the thief sword. Tiltyu wants the magic ring at the very end of the level to run the arena and in excess of 40k after that.

Move warp to Aideen after Deirdre vanishes, move the hero sword to someone else after Ardan is in on the SW castle capture. Move the thief sword after someone fetches the restore staff.

Arena notes:

Average Ardan can clear this arena with a little save manipulation and the hero sword. He can afford to buy the Elite ring for the arena after he sells his pursuit ring. He needs 18 strength and 5 speed (average level 13) to kill the dark mage, and 19 strength to kill the duke knight (AL 15). Unfortunately my Ardan is one strength below average and killing the duke knight is too improbable (even if he had 19 str he would have to hit 4/4 66 hit attacks). If he gets a strength off kill XP I'll try it before the level ends but he won't be wearing the elite ring.

Azel can get past the swordsman if he has 16 magic (two hits with thunder), but the dark mage is a brick wall.

Play notes:

General strategy is Lach and most of the foot units go left to set up to kill Eltshan's knights and take that castle, and most of the horse units up to take the first one.

Hero sword Ardan counterkills all four of the little lance knights to the left of the starting castle. He and Azel cooperate to kill the captain.

I don't promote Lex while he's running the arena - if he has over 23 defense the wyvern riders that come out after Eltshan disappears won't attack him, and I want him to chip them (I'm fighting them north of the first castle). He wants like 20 defense, they have 23 attack, plus their boss (28 attack with a steel sword). He can promote and clear the arena after that.

Lex chips the javelin armors to the right of the starting castle with the hand axe (two hits on the captain); elite+pursuit+magic ring Dew finishes all of them with light sword shots by countering one per turn (they get staggered perfectly by Lex getting in their way for a turn). When only the captain and one armor jav are left Dew kills the captain safely in player phase. Dew never got hit but Aideen would have been able to move into Libro range so it was a 0 risk operation.

The main horse force moves up and does the fight with the armor axes and arch knights with Aira and Holyn as well. Fin promotes and I send him back to the main castle to promote and switch off being Deirdre's warp target with Jamke who moves west to Lach's mini army. The rest of the group moves up and seizes the first castle. Midir gets the thunder sword because he's flat broke and I don't want Dew to blow 40000 gold at once tanking him up later.

There is a formation I use with Levin, Azel, Lachesis, Fury, Jamke and Sylvia (Arden is close) in front of the western castle approach to counter Eltshan's troops on the turn they appear. Azel will be attacked by three javelin knights at 23 attack and 30 hit when holding the thunder tome and in forest + Lach's charisma range. He'll be a 3HKO with the shield ring on; I'm prepared to risk one of my three losses here since I don't want to save them up for no reason when getting XP on Azel is as good a purpose as the game is gonna give me. Levin is also at a very slight risk because he'll have to dodge several javelins at 1-2% hit. End turn...

Azel gets hit twice, but not three times. No shield ring and I'd never have tried it. Everyone in the forest area moves back for another turn of countering so Eltshan will move closer to Lachesis for their talk (Lach Live staffs Azel twice with Sylvia's help). Sigurd, Cuan and Ethlin all start moving towards the second castle, the rest of the horseforce and the swordspersons stay at the first castle to be in position for the wyverns and pirates.

Beowulf sells the thief sword and restore staff, having aquired enough gold to buy the elite ring for the arena in the last two chapters, and Alec buys the thief sword back to drink up that sweet pirate gold. Lachesis and Sylvia head home to spam.

Azel gets another counterkill (and Levin gets another three - cocky bastard), Lachesis is danced forward to do the Earth Sword talk and all of the cross knights are finished off. All the looting pirates are gold drained and killed. Noishe gets over promotion level so Aideen warps him home. Dew visits the +3 strength town. Arden gets a strength up on a kill, so I'll try to let him kill the duke and great knight in the arena.

Azel gets the Silver Blade, he needs it to sell for the cash for the elite ring next chapter. Fury heads north to meet up with Claude, Lex is positioned to counterchip the wyvern army and everyone nearby will wipe them out in player phase.

Chipping goes OK. Midir gets the kill for the live ring (which I much prefer on Fury/Fee since it's so expensive and hard to move, but it just doesn't mesh with my strategy here - if I played again I'd move Fury north). Lester will be happy I guess. I have to leave a couple of wyverns over sea alive to vanish when Sig seizes the second castle. I do the Gae Bolg convo. Azel visits the +1 def town for the money.

Dew is positioned in the meadow where the bridge will connect next turn to prevent Pizarl from charging in and messing up Dew's xp and gold feast here. Dew's ranged attack and thief sword Alec can chip pirates down to a health that Dew can counter-kill in enemy phase. When Pizarl is down to 1-2 pirates he heads back to Orgahill to make a new squad of xp and gold sponges.

Sigurd vacates the second castle and Ardan surprises me by chopping up the duke Knight in the arena on the first attempt, followed by the great knight. He'll have enough gold to buy the elite ring next chapter after he visits a village. With the +3 strength town Dew does enough damage to 2RKO iron axe pirates with melee, killing 3 pirates every 2 turns.

I nearly have a heart attack when two iron axe pirates hit Dew in the same turn at 6% hit (he counterkilled both, meaning Dew was freeing up the space for the next pirate in the conga line to attack him) and a third gets a swing at him and misses. I hadn't even considered the possibility. Luckily he had enough def and HP gains to be a 3HKO. Eventually I whittle through the pirates and Pizarl heads to get a new squad. Dew is level 17 and massively strength and defense screwed, joy. The +3 strength town brings him back to average strength at least. Midir and Aideen become lovers.

Lachesis promotes on turn 28 and clears the arena. Dew kills Pizarl when he moves way ahead of his squad using the leg ring. Dew and Noishe escort Aideen out to Briggid. Everyone else gets a chance to kill some of Pizarl's second squad.

Ethlin sells her Relive - the boss here is so sad I don't even need to heal anyone. She'll pass down a return ring and Aira's iron blade to Leaf. Cuan is passing down Gae Bolg and a silver lance, Fin is self-passing Cuan's old silver lance with some kills on it.

Neat trick - Fury flew up to Tilt/Claude/Briggid to stand next to Claude and help with the pirates, and I let her chip most of the melee pirates so Dew can ORKO all of them when they come after him. Dew hits promotion level.

I forgot about the power ring. I guess I'll give it to... Beowulf? Lex and Aira become lovers on turn 32 and I'm boss abusing while I wait for Dew to finish up the stuff I need him to do. Dew gets the wind sword on turn 34, Aideen warps him back on turn 35 thanks to leg ring movement and she gets over promotion level thanks to mostly purposeful Libra spamming earlier in the chapter. I realize I should have "rented" the return ring with her so she could run part of this chapter's arena - since she can sell it back for the same amount it costs thanks to her bargain ring, it wouldn't have cost me a thing. Stupid.

Sylvia dances Dew back to consciousness and he promotes and buys the silver blade to finish the arena, sell some of his rings (inc. elite) and give cash to Tiltyu. Brigid runs the arena wearing the elite ring, and then Tiltyu with the magic ring.

Tiltyu misses a Tron on the dark mage so I have to use one more turn so I can get Tiltyu to finish the arena (I could restart the previous turn to manipulate RNs but it's too much work). Dew now has enough money cap room to sell the pursuit and leg rings without waste.

Seize on turn 36.

Final XP:

Sigurd  2139
Noishe  2048
Alec    1932
Ardan   1738
Fin     2002
Cuan    2417
Midir   1943
Levin   1649
Holyn   1879
Azel    1759
Jamke   1872
Claude  2255
Beowulf 1951
Lex     2310
Dew     2368
Ethlin  3000
Laches  2694
Aira    1919
Fury    1610
Tiltyu  1111
Sylvia  1226
Aideen  2010
Brigid  1900

Turns: 36

Chapter 4

My notes for four suck, but notably I had the idea of not using the arena with or promoting Ardan and using him with the light sword and elite ring to counter the javelin pegasus knight squad that fights Manya's squad, with Lex chipping them to feed Ardan kills. If Ardan is promoted his defense will probably go over 24 and they won't try attacking him. After that Fury returns him to run the arena before the chapter ends, and he'll cap in the chapter 5 arena.

Doing all of the above XP rank junk led to most people being level 30 at the end of Ch5, a few at 29 and Sylvia at 22 (she got all 6 civilian rescues in chapter 4) and also led to me getting bored and quitting.

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Every one of them was tanked up with well over 40k gold too, so you can imagine how overleveled they were for chapter 4 after passing the elite ring around to run that arena.

If you ever feel like starting this up again, know that experience rank is MUCH easier in generation 2. Though tactics is a bit harder...Of course you could have just failed like I did and came 2 levels short of A ranking the EXP rank after the screen came up due to a miscalculation and ragequitted fire emblem for a while...so maybe its better that you didn't waste another ~12 hours of playing this game only to be disappointed.

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If you ever feel like starting this up again, know that experience rank is MUCH easier in generation 2. Though tactics is a bit harder...Of course you could have just failed like I did and came 2 levels short of A ranking the EXP rank after the screen came up due to a miscalculation and ragequitted fire emblem for a while...so maybe its better that you didn't waste another ~12 hours of playing this game only to be disappointed.

lol. How the could you fall short with Ethlin and Deirdre staff abused? I never gave Deirdre warp and Ethlin could barely make it to 20(in part because I always had left her with the Live staff. although I did burn money trying to get the most out of Sylvia's Prayer in Ch. 5 sometimes.

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lol. How the could you fall short with Ethlin and Deirdre staff abused? I never gave Deirdre warp and Ethlin could barely make it to 20(in part because I always had left her with the Live staff. although I did burn money trying to get the most out of Sylvia's Prayer in Ch. 5 sometimes.

I suck with exp rank in this game (1st gen, not second). Maybe that's why my Ethlin got to like level ~25. I wasn't caring much about some of the other units. It's funny how devastating she is with Light sword + pursuit ring + magic ring. Of course, those are all things that various other units desperately need to get to a good level, so that's probably why I got her so high and left so many units not promoted (like Noishe + Alec + Beowolf).

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If you ever feel like starting this up again, know that experience rank is MUCH easier in generation 2. Though tactics is a bit harder...Of course you could have just failed like I did and came 2 levels short of A ranking the EXP rank after the screen came up due to a miscalculation and ragequitted fire emblem for a while...so maybe its better that you didn't waste another ~12 hours of playing this game only to be disappointed.

Ouch. I actually found working out the XP rank tricks kind of fun, like turning Dew into a chapter 3 death dealer, or the return staff relay in chapter 2. Really, I mostly quit because my units were so ridiculously overpowered compared to the enemies. That part gets much worse in gen 2, which is why chapter 6 looked like this hopeless barren expanse of ORKOing tedium to me.

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I messed around a little in gen 2 with cheats to check a few things and I find that Holyn/Sylvia is junk; Leen's bases are just too crap to be fixed or ameliorated for several chapters after you get her. I didn't put enough thought into that decision. Just use Lex or Ardan if you want to have Leen clearing arenas (utilizing sleep sword cheese). Laylea is fine although getting the knight and leg rings on her for chapter 8 will require heavy Patty intervention.

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I got a second wind on this and I think I can finish it at a slower pace. I still had the starting save from chapter 5 and I checked that I had enough turns to switch the Holyn/Sylvia pairing for Ardan/Sylvia, and it was possible.

If a mod wants to remove the "Prologue - 3" part from the thread title that would be nice. And, "I think I am gonna finish it :)"

Ch 5 - Target turns ~25

Goals:

I realize I have almost exactly enough turns to complete an Ardan/Sylvia pairing, which is funny and it has inspired me to redo this chapter and restart my log. I wish I had saved a slot for chapter 4 but I didn't, so that's just gonna be mysterious (I used 38 turns, and the last 4 or so were totally gratuitous do-nothing boss abusing turns because otherwise Dew/Brigid won't finish.)

I basically want to cap out everyone, but it's not quite going be possible because most of the enemy units are way underlevelled at this point, so parents get priority. The mountain thieves in this chapter are level 30 but they vanish when you take the first castle, so they all have to be taken by then.

Inheritance notes:

Celice will get the hero sword, the leg ring and the elite ring.

Lakche will get Sigurd's silver sword (a few kills from 50) and the light sword.

Skasaher will get the skill ring and the shield ring.

Rana will get all the various B staves and the bargain ring.

Delmud will get the silver blade, a slim sword, and a power ring. He gets most of the rest of the A and B swords (inc a silver sword and the steel blade) to pawn (Aless will get one).

Lester will get all the bows, the speed ring and the live ring.

Arthur will get Holsety, Elwind, and the pursuit ring.

Fee will get the hero lance, slim lance, the javelins, the armor cutter, the horseslayer, a steel sword, the thunder sword, and the thief sword.

Patty will get the wind sword, a slim sword, an iron sword, the barrier ring, and a return ring.

Nanna will get the prayer sword, the return staff, and some C staves to sell.

Tinny will get the magic ring and all the tomes besides Elwind (to sell).

Leen will get the knight ring, the defense sword, the earth sword, and an iron sword.

Everyone that shows up later than chapter 7 doesn't need me to bother. Well, Sety gets the Reserve staff.

Arena notes: Everyone but Sylvia and Claude can crush the arena. Woot?

Pre-notes:

I think Alec, Beowulf and Noish can just cap from the mountain thieves around the castle and the small army on the left, and they can do it fairly quickly before I take the first castle. They can use broken weapons to squeeze one or two last pathetic drips of XP out of them.

My main army is my ground units that are all around level 28 out of the arena. Sylvia will have the leg ring until the last few turns to keep them pacing and killing massively underlevelled units to creep up 5 xp at a time.

Play notes:

Sigurd gets the broken Tyrfing and I have to shield him from the axe knights until I get a chance to switch back to a decent weapon. He'll repair a couple of shots into it at the first castle, just for the resistance boost.

Claude/Fury completes on turn 3, Tilty/Levin turn 7. Fury caps from Return spam on turn 9 and Tiltyu warps her back into the castle to sell the return staff and start moving so she can hero lance the long range magic enemies in the desert (no one else is capable and they're fairly low level so I'm not worried about the XP).

Alec only gets to 2977 and he's way on the left side of the map after finishing off the last of the mountain thieves on turn 8. Tiltyu is almost done warp spamming but I'll send him out to the first castle after it's taken to try to grab something.

First castle is taken on turn 9 via Ichival shot, Sigurd repairs a few uses onto Tyrfing and moves to the gate after Syvlia dances him up another action. Tiltyu warps over Alec and Alec sells the cutter sword for Fury to pick up. I have my foot units to spread out from attacking ballistas and it will take me a turn to reconsolidate them.

Cuan carks it on turn 12. Midir caps by hero bowshot on the meteo castle boss on turn 13. Tyrfing Sigurd and Fury cooperated to kill the sleep staff priests prior to that.

Tiltyu has been waiting to cap by warping Levin to Phin and finally gets the chance on turn 15. Sylvia swaps the leg ring for the knight ring on turn 16 and Dew gives his money to Sigurd to buy the leg. Tiltyu sells the warp staff for Aideen to buy.

I realize the slayer dragon knights are worth a whopping 8 xp a piece for level 29 units, so I write-off capping Jamka and Alec. Kind of wasteful because they're both a fair bit over 29 and it would take too long to get them up in the area to fight Freege's army when I can just counterkill him with Levin. OH WELL. Briggid, Aira and Holyn cap off of them. Sigurd and Levin are already a few turns into the walk through the desert to finish the chapter.

I use Fury to trigger the Freege attack by lancing the armor bow on the right hand side and then cantering to safety. Levin is in position to safely counterkill Freege with Holsety and does. I could probably swing something like getting some kills on Elwind here or capping my two stragglers but I'm sick of the chapter. Sigurd starts walking to seize.

Ardan/Sylvia completes on turn 25, whee... But somehow Dew/Brigid still isn't done, and I have to piss a turn away even though Sigurd can seize. All I can think is that I must have accidentally gotten a jealousy round against Brigid in chapter 4 or something, because it should have completed. Ardan immediately gives all his money to the gold digger and she buys the earth sword so Leen can sell it and sleep sword abuse in chapter 7. Then she passes back all the money to Ardan so Corple won't be dead broke - I have nothing left to pass down to him to sell, unfortunately, so liquid cash is the only choice.

Dew/Brigid completes on turn 26 and Sigurd seizes.

Final XP:

Sigurd  3000
Noishe  3000
Alec    2977
Ardan   3000
Midir   3000
Levin   3000
Holyn   3000
Azel    3000
Jamka   2934
Claude  3000
Beowulf 3000
Lex     3000
Dew     3000
Lach    3000
Aira    3000
Fury    3000
Tiltyu  3000
Sylvia  2430
Aideen  3000
Brigid  3000

Turns: 26

So adding in Cuan I missed 14 possible levels in gen 1 (not counting Fin). I maybe could have capped Alec by letting him whack a mountain thief with a broken sword a couple more times by waiting an extra turn before taking the first castle instead of completely wasting the last turn. Or I could cap everyone by burning 3-4 more turns and fighting some stuff in the Freege army instead of Levinizing the Thorhammer guy.

I anticipate missing like, 0 levels up in gen 2, God help me. I'm also going to try to maintain a more efficiency-type pace with so many super strong units.

Ch 6 - Target turns ~25

No arena! Yay!

Pre-notes: I save and reset on the first turn to get 3-star leadership Celice. Maybe I'll do a no-reload ranked game after this (AND ALSO AFTER THE SUN GOES NOVA)

I'm going to get Johalva rather than Johan for once just to be weird.

Celice has 12 luck, pretty good.

Play notes: On turn 2 Celice moves onto a mountain tile in the narrow path to counterkill all the axefighters with the hero sword, with no arena in the chapter and not too many units I'm not afraid of taking efficiency-type risks since restarting won't be a big deal, but it ends up not being a problem. I take a much bigger risk on turn 6 by letting him counterkill all the axefighters coming in the wave from Ganeish, getting Celice to level 6. Turn 7 player phase slices up that wave down to one axe armor that whiffs an attack on Lester and dies the next turn. Lana is way behind.

On Turn 8 Celice, Delmud and Lester move right to take Ganeish while Lakche and Skahaser head south to get into the forest tiles there to counterkill Johalva's army. Oifaye heads right and up to kill the mountain thief and take that town because I don't want to waste anyone else's time getting to it.

Ganeish is seized on turn 10. Even though the Johan/Johalva armies turn into enemies at this point they don't charge out on the first possible turn for some reason, even if you have people in their movement range.

On turn 11 Fee and Arthur show up. Arthur immediately starts heading south through the mountains so he can eventually attract the hand axe knight army. Fee thief swords the mountain thief in range. Celice sells his slim sword to repair the hero sword a few extra times and then he and Delmud get in position to counterkill one guy in Johan's army.

Turn 12 Celice runs around Johan's army to hero sword him from the south, which leaves the rest of the army with an 8% hit on Celice and he counterkills all of them in enemy phase. Celice hits level 12. After the last of Johalva's units is killed Johalva goes into reinforcement mode and I plan to wait until he's almost back to his castle before recruiting him - the turn he switches the hand axe knight army starts moving, so I can delay that until I have Arthur in position.

Delmud gets the skill ring town, as no one nearby really gets anything out of it. I'd prefer to put it on Johalva but the Arthur thing means I can't. You could adapt this strategy to Johan by letting him retreat for reinforcements and I think he'd have enough time to get back to the skill ring village before the chapter ends - yet another reason Johan is superior.

On turn 17 Arthur gets some risky counterkills with Elwind while standing on a mountain (~10% hit against him, although he gets luck and speed level ups that reduce the danger for the last couple of enemies). Lakche recruits Johalva the next turn.

Arthur finishes Schmid's army the next turn on counter (now down to 3% hit, still not wounded) and Schmid immediately goes back into the castle for reinforcements.

Celice takes Isaac on turn 18.

Lana warps Julia to Isaac on turn 19 to have the Resire convo. Schmid pops out with a new hand axe army.

I have a bad "accident" when halfway through turn 20 enemy phase I finally realize that Arthur is going to level up again and they'll stop attacking him at 0% hit. It happens and Celice and Lester are out on a limb with no support, since I thought I'd just have them stroll up and seize the castle when Arthur was done. The Live ring I didn't want to put on Lester saves his ass by putting him back over a 3HKO. This is gonna cost me a couple of turns. I could have easily waited to recruit Johalva another turn and used Arthur to Holsety Schmid to death (seems only one unit can get reinforcements at a time) but I got a little too sneaky for my own good with the reinforcement harvesting.

Celice and Lester cooperate to kill Schmid in player phase turn 22 (Lester gets the Hero Axe). Arthur zaps Dannan a bit.

Lester kills Dannan on turn 24 with an absurd charge (must have wasted 10 hero bow shots on big shield), Celice seizes on turn 25.

That was much, much riskier than I played anything in Gen 1 post-Prologue, I had Arthur on 1HKO status for multiple turns taking 3-4 attacks at ~2-3% hit, but it's a short chapter.

Levin's Elwind and Sigurd's silver sword are both over 50 kills now. The Elwind should make Sety even more broken.

I realize I didn't mention it but Fee was flying around thief swording moutain thieves and collecting village gold most of the level, not terribly interesting.

Final XP:

Celice  1328
Skasaha  522
Johalva 1200
Delmud   448
Lester   624
Arthur   930
Oifaye  1534
Lakche   880
Lana     720
Julia    270
Fee      393

Turns: 25

Thinking about chapter 7

Tthere's something interesting in chapter 7 I was wondering if anyone has messed with before. In the southeast part of the map there's a squad with a general (as the captain), 6 sword armors and a thunder mage. This squad has a special script or something that makes any unit, besides the captain, respawn from Blume's castle at the start of the next enemy phase if it's killed. Theoretically if you could kill all 6 sword armors and the thunder mage between every enemy phase+player phase, another 7 units would spawn every turn. The big limitation is that the respawning stops if the captain is either killed or goes into retreat mode (because of the respawning that will only happen if he goes below 1/2 hp). If he retreats all the way back to the castle he'll heal and make a new squad as normal, after which the respawning behavior starts up again.

Unfortunately you don't have many units that can do anything with this information. If Celice inherited the armor cutter (which I didn't give him) he has a 2HKO on them, meaning usually a 2RKO for him. I'd give him the cutter if I played gen 1 again, but someone has to kill the mountain thieves and Leaf is fine for it. Nanna is your only healer down there so she can't throw away her HP. Fin can slaughter them if he doubles but he doesn't get any XP if he's promoted. The only purpose would be getting kills on a lance. If you intentionally gimped him in Gen 1 to keep his level low he'd get a trickle. The only character that can get down there is Fee, and with a hero lance she can 1RKO sword armors with quad hits but that burns hero lance uses quickly and it takes time to backtrack to Lenster to repair it. If she has the armor cutter she needs a physical father to get her str high enough in ch6+the ch 7 arena to ORKO with it, and I used Claude (note she coudl have Oifaye's cutter rather than an inherited one).

Plus it takes some trickery to keep the captain occupied without killing or hurting him. It would be nice if Fin could store his weapons in Lenster and tank the captain indefinitely while guarding to regen HP, but he can't. You can also let the captain just take Lenster but then you can't repair Fee's hero lance there.

Late in the chapter this actually happens again, with a new general/sword armor/thunder mage squad that spawns at the same time as the three sister mage units and Tinny/Linda (I think it's when you take the castle Leen is in). At that point it might be possible to exploit the heck out of it with a swordkid that's standing where the sword armors can suicide on the same turn they spawn or something, I don't know.

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Ch 7 - Target turns ~35

A much longer level with an arena, so it's back to not taking any risks when it's at all possible.

Goals:

Not much besides clearing. Julia will Warp until she can promote in the Ch 8 arena without the elite ring, which is high level 18 or so (she'll be my Libra-ist in ch 8).

I regret not giving Leaf the armor cutter from gen 1, he could maybe maybe get in range of promotion with extensive reinforce/respawn abuse and more inheritance to sell here to buy the elite ring from Celice before chapter 7 ends (so elite ring in both the ch 7 and 8 arenas) but oh well. If I were playing a Rescue-staff heavy efficiency game I'd try it for sure.

Delmud will get the shield ring, Leaf the speed ring. Leaf gets all of the SE village money in general.

Arthur will nuke his way through the second castle fight with PursuitHolsety then rendevous with Tinny. He'll probably end up wrath-nuking Blume.

Pre-notes:

I decide my weapon mix is kinda stupid. Power Ring Delmud gets the hero sword from Celice (who can't 2HKO dark mages anyway), while Celice takes the steel blade and the fire sword for now. Skasaher gets the 50-kill silver sword while Lakche will work on getting the light sword over 50 kills.

Arena notes:

Patty takes some seriously boring abuse to arena clear here. If I played ranked over again (which I think I won't ever do) I'd use Lex as her father and Ardan as Leen's, which would make everyone in gen 2 besides Johan/Johalva and like, Corple easily clear all arenas. Lex/Aira is a mediocre choice for ranked, just totally unnecessary.

Everyone else is an easyish clear.

Play notes:

Leaf has 3 luck. Mein Gott.

Julia will spam warp on Oifaye. She'll rendezvous with Celice after he seizes the castle that Leen is in to warp him closer to finishing the chapter.

Lester gets in position to hero bow counter the first dark mage, with Delmud and Celice boosting him. Fee flies south to thief sword and help Leaf. I do the Balmung conversation.

I let Fin get some kills on the silver lance against level 5 enemies he gets no XP from while Nanna, Fee and Leaf take out the mountain theives.

Lester, Delmud and Celice clear out the dark mages along the road with Lana healing and Celice heads up to intercept Shanan and seize Yied (before turn 12 when the boss there finds his Fenrir if possible). Everyone else heads down the path to be ready as soon as the roadblock units disappear. Leaf's army w/ Fee juggles sword armor spawns and killing the mountain thieves.

Inexplicably, 7 level 4 dark mage units spawn from Yied, completely destroying my plans for the chapter.

I think it might have had something to do with the respawning sword armors/thunder mage, it's definitely a special script.

Play notes, second attempt after a restart:

I wish I could re-roll Leaf's luck as my reward for suffering that dark mage bug, but the starting RNGs are the same and he still has it.

Same shit, no dark mages spawn. I risk a 19% counterkill hit against one of the guard dark mages at Yied (real risk something like 7-8% since Shanan can continue and/or meteor sword to prevent a counter, pretty likely with the Balmung bonuses). 3-star leadership Celice could cut this to zero but waiting for him would waste a turn and I only have 2 left before the dark bishop gets his Fenrir. He does get a continue, so no sweat. Shanan's going to have to take a risk against the boss as well. Julia finishes the arena and I she'll start moving towards her rendezvous on turn 12.

Shanan kills the dark bishop in Yied on turn 12, while Celice kills one of the two guards remaining. Neither Shanan or Celice can be OHKO'd by the last guard at this point, thankfully. I think I'd have to use Fee to make Yied 100% risk free if Shanan takes a hit while he's helping Patty retreat, but it worked out decently. Nanna returns Fin now that Fee is in position to exploit the squad in the southeast and has levelled up a few times and Leaf has started collecting village gold. Fin buys a Javelin, runs the arena and then sets out to help kill Aless' Forrest Knight boss when he appears (continue is scary for most of my units).

Celice seizes Yied on turn 13. Patty immediately does the #2 hero sword convo. The other units at the NPC roadblock start moving south into the newly appeared Melgar army after the block disappears on turn 14, while Delmud heads to get the shield ring. Celice heads south.

Lester rushes forward to counterkill one of the thundermages and start the Melgar army moving away from its ballistas and the Storm boss on turn 15, and he dodges an attack from a lance armor. Next turn Lester ghero bows another mage and the swordkids and Johalva take out some of the armors.

Arthur kills Liza in player phase of turn 17. The other units in the area mop up the right side of the Melgen formation while staying out of the boss's Storm range.

Arthur kills a ballista on turn 18 and then Ishtor on turn 19. Lester and Johalva kill the now-mobile castle guards and Celice seizes on turn 20. Lakche meets up with Shanan for the +2 strength convo on turn 21 while I position Delmud to counter most of Jabarr's free knights.

Hero sword + ringed up Delmud completely decimates the free knights, and I decide to get cute and let Jabarro retreat and get another batch of reinforcements, which in retrospect cost an inefficient amount of turns and was silly and dangerous - Jabarro got to take a turn before his squad for some reason (unpredictable assed game, squad captains usually get the last turn) and he could have gotten Celice low enough for the free knights/archers to kill if his continue had gone off. Oifaye and Fin ended up getting a lot of the kills from the reinforcements.

Arthur, Lester, Johalva and Skahaser cooperate to kill off the three sister mages and recruit Tinny. I try to get everyone in position to abuse the swordarmor spawns.

Celice seizes Darnassus on turn 27 and is immediately warped to Melgen by Julia. Patty runs the arena with her sleep sword and then sells it for Leen to use. Arthur counterkills Blume in 27 enemy phase. In another random behavior his castle guards WON'T start moving after their boss dies.

Julia warps Delmud to the bottom left castle after Celice moves off of it on turn 28 so he can intercept Nanna on her way there to do her +1 luck convo and also to give her a Return target for a little XP. He sells his low-use hero sword so Nanna can use it in the arena.

I allow the captain of the respawning squad to take Lenster on turn 28. It's just something to keep him occupied while his squad keeps spawning to be killed by my anti-Blume squad. If anyone knows whether this is going to screw up the tactics rank (as is vaguely hinted at on the Serenes ranking page for FE4) please tell me now so I don't find out after I've played three more chapters. Nanna returns Tinny on turn 29 and Tinny runs the arena, as do Leen, Aless, and Shanan. Julia expends the remainder of her warp staff to get to level 19.

Leaf finishes killing some sword armors with Fee's help and then returns himself on turn 31 with his ring. Fee moves up to kill the General that took Lenster with the cutter in enemy phase followed by thunder sword in the player phase while Skasaher, Arthur, Lester and Johalva finish off the last batch of sword armors I get to harvest.

Nanna reaches the bottom left castle on turn 32 and she and Leaf finish the arena. Celice seizes.

Final XP:

Celice  1906
Shanan  1608
Skasaha 1566
Leaf     924
Johalva 1485
Delmud  1200
Fin     2159
Lester  1354
Aless   1098
Arthur  1428
Oifaye  1825
Patty    547
Lakche  1708
Lana    1310
Julia   1902
Fee     1399
Tinny    600
Leen     658
Nanna    998

Turns: 32

The hero lance went to 59 kills from abusing sword armors. I still don't quite have the first hero sword or the light sword over 50.

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Ch 8 - Target turns ~20

Goals + Reminder notes:

I'm doing this about half efficiency-style so it's going to be Fin/Leaf/Nanna and Celice/Patty/Leen rushing from Lenster to Blume's castle. I'll use Fin or Leen to trigger a prayer to be my lightning rod for the long range magic crossfire zone.

Julia gets the Libra staff to help against Mohammed and level up without overt staff spamming. Lana gets Warp. Leen buys the leg ring with arena winnings at the start of the chapter.

Celice will have to hero sword Ishtar. Faval can miss and be counter-OHKO'd, and with the combat rank and no savestates I can't RNG manipulate around that. You need 52 attack to OHKO her, 31 to 2HKO with the hero sword. The 100 accuracy + Nanna + Leadership stars should be 100% hit if she's standing on a road tile (which she will be).

Patty needs to recruit Faval and be set up to promote on this level/in the next chapter with the pursuit ring + elite ring and a magic sword. The enemies here are mostly level 18 so it's not hard for everyone other than Leen to get into promotion range.

Leaf will get the second power ring.

Aless will be warped to Blume's castle after it's taken - he'll do the cousin convo with Nanna then run down to get the thief ring. I want him to be below 1/2 HP so he can ambush the thieffighter in enemy phase without getting robbed.

I also want Delmud and maybe Lester to be warped in to help with the last section of the chapter.

Johalva will be positioned to counter the dragon knight squad with the javelins using the handaxe while standing on a mountain tile. I'd like to promote him in the Ch 9 arena as well, he has kill priority against Mohammed's army and he needs 40k gold.

Shanan wants kills.

Leen and Faval will split the civilian rescues (delaying Leen will kill some turns, unfortunately).

Celice can kill the right hand dragon knight squad I guess (the one with iron lances and sword). Or actually Nanna might be good if I switch the hero sword and have her guard the castle? I'll decide in-chapter.

Don't forget:

Arthur->Fee convo +3mhp

Fin -> Leaf convo +3str

Nanna -> Aless convo +2str +2def

Power Ring

Thief Ring

Remember to return Faval and Sety to run the arena before seizing. Lana should also promote and run the arena.

Remember to finish the Arena with Nanna after she's levelled up a few times and done the Aless convo.

If it's convenient:

Fee -> Sety +1luk

Play notes:

Patty has the light sword, the elite ring, magic ring, and the pursuit ring.

Celice has the hero sword with kills, the fire sword, and a javelin; Leaf has the newer hero sword. Delmud has Sigurd's silver sword and the thief sword. Julia has Libra, Lana has Warp. Fee still has the hero lance [Post-chapter note: I should have given it to Fin, his silver lance is never going to go over 50 and it would be another several kills on it to up the crit bonus]

Turn 1: Lana warps Celice to Lenster, Celice moves, Leen dances Lana, Lana warps Patty to Lenster. Everyone else moves out to intercept the nearby armor/mage squad.

Turn 2: Lana warps Leen to Lenster. Celice, Fin and Patty are arranged so that Patty will have several chances to counter with the light sword (facing a 3HKO at 20% hit against four attacks, plus solar swords; I'm confident). The the rest of the javelin lance knights suicide on Celice's javelin and Odo can't reach to attack anyone after his troubadors block his movement.

Turn 3: Leaf, Patty, Fin and Nanna kill a wounded lance knight or a troubador each, Leen dances them and moves forward. Leaf and Patty cooperate to kill Odo (Patty solar swords herself to near-full after taking a hit from Odo), Nanna heals Leaf and only harmless troubadors are left. Fin is positioned to counterjavelin one of the three approaching mage sisters.

Down south my units nibble at the edge of the Mohammed formation.

Faval appears on turn 3 enemy phase. Fin gets hit by the Elwind sister, putting him exactly in range to get a 1hp prayer when he gets hit by the silver lance general guarding the bridge.

Turn 4: Leaf and Patty kill the Elthund sister while Fin silver lance kills the wounded Elwind sister. Nanna heals up Patty, then they're danced and kill the Elfire sister. Fin and Celice take a position to block the troubadors from attacking people with defense under 16.

Shanan Balmungerizes Muhammed and all the dangerous units in his army are killed.

Turn 5: Faval is standing on the bridge at the start of the turn. Celice and Patty cooperate to kill a javelin armor and Fin injures the general with his silver lance and takes a hit to go down to 1 hp and gain 110 evade for the turn. Nanna heals Celice and then the four of them are danced. Fin finishes the general and steps to the side to attract long range magic and let Patty recruit Faval. After he's recruited Faval moves out of Ishtar's range and kills a javelin armor. Celice hero swords one of the long range mages then canters back out of Ishtar's range. Leaf kills a troubador.

Turn 5 enemy phase: All of the enemies try and fail to hit Fin. Ishtar moves two tiles from the bridge.

Turn 6: Celice hero swords Ishtar. Faval OHKOs one of the long range mages, Patty injures the other for Nanna to kill. They're danced and they kill one of Blume's guards, followed by Faval getting a OHKO on Blume with a sibling critical from Patty.

Turn 7: The guards are mopped up and Sigurd seizes after Leaf and Fin kill the last two troubadors. Leen dances them and Aless is warped in to have the Nanna convo and start towards the thief ring.

Turn 8: The dragon knights are out and active and the bridge appears. Shanan and Johalva kill the central mountain thief. Everyone around Conote moves south, and Delmud is warped in to join up with them.

Turn 9: Celice talks to Sety, who reserves up Nanna and Fin. Lester is warped in (he's getting the village gold near Conote). Faval, Fin and Leen rescue civilians.

Turn 10: Leen rescues another civilian. Leaf finally takes the power ring village. Delmud and Johalva are positioned to counterkill dragon knights. I let Aless injure himself below the ambush threshold by attacking a mountain thief with an iron lance.

Turn 10 enemy phase: Lots of counterkills.

Turn 11: Units move in to mop up dying enemies. Leen rescues yet another civilian. Lana hits promotion level from Warping.

Turn 12: Leen rescues the last civilian. Aless moves into the thieffighter's range. Nanna finishes the arena in Manster. Patty sells the elite ring and both Lana and Faval rebuy it to clear the arena also (both have bargain). Faval will wear it for the rest of the chapter. Everyone around Manster moves towards the final part of the chapter with Celice positioned to counter with his fire sword.

Turn 12 enemy phase: Aless counterkills the thieffighter via RNG manipulated continue'd Mistolin ambush. Celice injures several more dragon knights.

Turn 13: Fin, Delmud, Nanna and Sety move around Celice. Parry, Faval, Lester and Leen are trying to catch up but probably won't have much more importance to the chapter. Everyone else is done aside from spamming.

Turn 14: I stupidly put Patty too far forward and she gets killed by three javelin dracoknights with 20 hit on her. dgdsdskgsgkdsg;ldsgkds;gk

I spent a dry run working out the logistics of the "recruiting Faval/killing Ishtar/killing Blume" part of the level and I'm sick of the chapter so I'm just going to take the loss. I reload the autosave and I don't move Patty forward.

Don't get lazy at the end of the chapter folks.

Turn 16: I do the Fee/Sety talk and then return Sety with Nanna.

Turn 17: Fin chips the last boss and then Faval finishes him off with Ichival. Sety finishes the arena. Celice could seize but I need one more turn for Aless to mug the last mountain thief and take the last village.

Turn 18: Nanna does two returns for XP and then Celice seizes.

Final XP: 

Celice  2412
Shanan  1937
Skasaha 1922
Faval   1930
Leaf    1708
Johalva 1846
Sety    1975
Delmud  1946
Fin     2587
Lester  1856
Aless   1551
Arthur  1831
Oifaye  1973
Patty   1893
Lakche  2028
Lana    2386
Julia   2450
Fee     1985
Tinny   1023
Leen    1557 
Nanna   1796

Turns: 18
Losses: 1

Letting Leen get 4 civilian rescues (I'd have given her all 6 but they flee into a castle after a few turns) probably cost me 2-3 turns on top of the one I threw away on Aless. Welp it's not like I didn't blow dozens of turns in gen 1 for XP.

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