Integ's Axes Playthrough!

[Scarlet]

Stat boosters time, I looted an Angelic Robe. Call it!

One of Garcia/Ross/Duessel to make them even tankier. It'll also guarantee that they can eat two shadowshots when pure water'd without dying.

Garcia might not even need it though. He's going to get pretty close to his cap even without a robe.

[Psych]

Gerik?

[riariadne]

Go w/ Duessel. Around now he'll start actually taking damage from some d00ds, so making him a 50HP/18Def guy will help him out a lot. Especially fro Ch. 19... oh man, you're going to be screwed there without a good tank. Duessel can be your man on the left who can take a ton of hits and pull it off, the other three can barricade at the southern throne room entrance with someone sitting behind as a backup.

Also... you could've actually used Franz. You said axe guys only, right? You can't have anyone else attack except Seth in Prologue and Ch.1 and Orson in Ch.5x? Solution: park Franz 2 spaces away from Ch. 3 Boss with Sword equipped. If he is in danger of being OHKO'd heal. If not just keep ending turns. Repeat for 899 more turns or in the more likely situation until Bazba runs out of Hand Axe uses. Then kill Bazba. Chapter 5, do the same with an Iron Lance equipped. Repeat until he either reaches lv 10 or Saar runs out of Javelin uses. Then kill Saar. Chapter 7, versus Murray. Same as Chapter 5. Repeat until he reaches lv 10 or Murray runs out of Javelin uses. Then kill Murray. Chapter 12. Park w/ Iron Sword 2 sapces away from Cyclops boss. Whose hit rate is so terrible you'll almost definitely reach lv 10. Then promote.

I never said it was a good idea, but hey.

[Integrity]

Go w/ Duessel. Around now he'll start actually taking damage from some d00ds, so making him a 50HP/18Def guy will help him out a lot. Especially fro Ch. 19... oh man, you're going to be screwed there without a good tank. Duessel can be your man on the left who can take a ton of hits and pull it off, the other three can barricade at the southern throne room entrance with someone sitting behind as a backup.

Also... you could've actually used Franz. You said axe guys only, right? You can't have anyone else attack except Seth in Prologue and Ch.1 and Orson in Ch.5x? Solution: park Franz 2 spaces away from Ch. 3 Boss with Sword equipped. If he is in danger of being OHKO'd heal. If not just keep ending turns. Repeat for 899 more turns or in the more likely situation until Bazba runs out of Hand Axe uses. Then kill Bazba. Chapter 5, do the same with an Iron Lance equipped. Repeat until he either reaches lv 10 or Saar runs out of Javelin uses. Then kill Saar. Chapter 7, versus Murray. Same as Chapter 5. Repeat until he reaches lv 10 or Murray runs out of Javelin uses. Then kill Murray. Chapter 12. Park w/ Iron Sword 2 sapces away from Cyclops boss. Whose hit rate is so terrible you'll almost definitely reach lv 10. Then promote.

I never said it was a good idea, but hey.

The concept of this blows my mind, bro. o_o

I could have done it with Kyle in C12, by that definition.

[Anouleth]

I'm sure that Kyle or Forde can reach level 10 off kills in 5x alone, anyway. Since you have to bend the rules for that chapter, you may as well take the opportunity to add another unit to your arsenal.

[Integrity]

I don't consider it having bent the rules. I gave all of the kills to Orson, Orson ran off with all the XP. To my purposes, every kill vanished into the aether.

Either way, that's ten chapters past now.

[Integrity]

Well then. Duracell got him a SeraphAngelic Robe (dammit radiant dawn). He has FIFTY healths now. wow. :o

As a consequence to talking to Emerald on IRC, I have deployed all my Axers alongside Tana and Rennac. I'm bending my own rules here, but neither will get attacked and frankly, anybody could grab the treasures and it's just going to be faster to grab them with a thief.

CHAPTER 15: THE DESERT LOL

Standard opening. Saleh grabs Eirika rather brusquely and runs across the desert with Innes trailing.

Everybody's getting kills. Even Dozla has leveled like twice already.

Caellach was pathetic. He died in two rounds to the Ross Garcia Duo on Turn Somethingearly. Six or seven.

Giving Gerik that Energy Drop was the best move I ever made. He keeps barely 1HKOing Mages with a Steel Axe. Literally, he's either doing their health or one point above. It's awesome.

Ross and Garcia got their A on Turn 12 and then got the Dragon Axe from the northern Zerker.

Just now, Dozla doubled something that wasn't a Pegasus Knight.

I forgot the Silence staff and had to make Saleh, Innes, Eirika, and Ephraim wait for it and fail massively. Turn 25 I finally got it on Innes as the last treasure. Ross then 1HKOs Valter with the aforementioned Dragon Axe.

Innes took five disarmed attacks, Saleh took one, and the Tanannac duo took none.

-

Well then. 25 turns ain't bad, especially considering I was lined up to Rout at turn 18 easily and had to wait to gather treasure because I'm greedy. I won't on Rausten Court, probably. No matter! Stats!

Garcia    8.78  46|26|19|16|13|15| 7  16  A Ross
Ross     11.90  45|25|20|17|22|17| 9  13  A Garcia
Duessel  14.25  51|21|15|14| 8|19|11  15
Dozla     6.07  47|19|16|11| 6|12| 9  16
Gerik     4.68  39|18|16|15| 9|14| 6  15

Arright now. We have a Boots (swiftsole, whatever), a Body Ring, and an Afa's Drops or Metis's Tome or whatever. For reference, I have included everybody's CONs immediately after their stats. Everybody's MOV is 6. Fire away!

[BBM]

The Body Ring to Ross, I think, so he can use Steel Axes without an AS loss. Since Gerik was insta-promoted, the Metis' Tome to him, or Dozla, but I think Gerik would be better. The Boots are tough. I think either Duessel or Garcia. Duessel has the higher Resistance, but Garcia the higher Strength. Since Axes have a high power, I think Duessel, maybe, so he can rush in and kill Gorgons.

[Integrity]

By your criteria, I'd actually lean Garcia for the Boots since he'd be just *thaaaaaat* much more likely to 1HKO the Gorgons and avoid counterattacks.

[Scarlet]

Body ring obviously to Ross, unless you feel like having Garcia or Dozla wield the devil axe without AS loss lol.

Metis' tome to Gerik, though Dozla actually is a valid choice as well; his growths are pretty decent, and it might help him grow some Spd. But if you don't feel like hoping for a few lucky Spd levels, simply stick with Gerik.

Boots to either Garcia or Ross. Garcia if you're paranoid about that one additional point of Str possibly allowing some additional OHKOs, but otherwise Ross as he simply has better stats and thus better chances of surviving on his own, which obviously also means you can make better use of his increased movement.

[dondon151]

Is there a reason why you waited for the Silence staff when you're not allowed to use anyone that can use Silence?

[Integrity]

Is there a reason why you waited for the Silence staff when you're not allowed to use anyone that can use Silence?

Because I don't care too much about turncount, it was free, and I am greedy.

[Integrity]

It's only been 20 days. Urk. Sorry, folks, had company over (yes, ever since my last update. literally.)

ANYWAY

This shit's revived. The rankings are done so this is getting my full attention again. Expect an update later today.

[Integrity]

And a triple post by me to signify that I actually finished a chapter.

So I finally fucking finished C16. I did NOT expect that chapter to be such a massive slog. AGH. Anyway, I don't remember what the pre-game was because I always save state 9 in the deploy screen. I may have fed some stat boosters to some people as outlined in a post by Raymond since that seemed to be a theme for me.

CHAPTER 16: A FUCKING SLOG

Let me start out: I hated this chapter. The bold part is the important part. It included no fewer than four Bolters, one Sleep staffer (and he was promoted, too, giving him a 2/3 accuracy by my eye) and a Berzerk staffer to top it off. That latter actually did nothing because DOZLA dodged all the shots from him.

General strategy, Duracell and Dozla went straight up with Ephraim in tow. Gerik went up a little then hid in a Forest so he could fight the reinforcements. In previous incarnations, I'd had him go right to tank the Cavs and later Rangers, but I found he couldn't hit them and got bogged down and died. Ross and Garcia took the right flank.

Gerik was indispensable, but didn't kill very much. He prevented the Cavaliers from gibbing Ephraim, but in reality his contributions were only about six kills.

Ross and Garcia...that was interesting. They had to take the five shots of Purge (hyper-accuracy ftw) and two of the three Sleep staff shots. They were also in charge of moving up fast enough to prevent my losing treasure to Thieves. Garcia ended up tanking the Purger and chugging Vulneraries. Ross fell asleep and tanked the general population of the rightern quadrant.

Duracell and Dozla, well, that was the slog. Every enemy in the top half, roughly, got packed into a 1-square-wide hallway with Duracell at the head. He had to kill Swordmasters and Druids while drinking ELIXIRS because they did too much in return. Seriously, he'd take upwards of 40 damage some rounds, from three total attacks. I ended up having to drop two charges of Elixir on him and countless Vulneraries between him and Garcia.

I ended up catching the Thief who took the Tomahawk and killing him for it. I missed the Thief who spawned to the right by one turn, but I wasn't worried about it. I thought I'd just liberate whatever he stole from his cold, dead fingers but it turned out to be some thousands of gold. I have 100k right now, so I'm not excessively saddened, but I am pissed that I lost a chest. I still got the Knight's Crest and the Talisman.

Ross fucking one-shotted Orson with an Iron Axe. He had an 86% chance to hit with WTD vs. Orson's 26. Take that, motherfucker.

All in all, I ended up taking 25 turns to clear everything and get Ephraim to Seize. Ephraim and Eirika both promoted because what the hell why not.

-

k, that was suck and horrible and let's NEVER do that again. Moving forward, straight ahead.

Garcia    9.86  47|27|20|16|14|15| 8  A Ross
Ross     13.81  46|25|21|18|23|17| 9  A Garcia
Duessel  15.77  52|21|16|14| 8|20|12
Dozla     6.54  47|19|16|11| 6|12| 9
Gerik     5.71  40|19|17|16|10|14| 6

I have looted a Talisman. Who gets the +2 RES shot?

Edited July 3, 2010 by Integrity

[Rewjeo]

Gerik. He's got the worst durability all around.

[Integrity]

Gerik. He's got the worst durability all around.

Respect the suggestion as I do, the reasoning is faulty. Gerik's still got higher SPD, LCK, and DEF than Dozla.

Just his RES is lower.

[Rewjeo]

Wow, I looked at the stats and somehow switched their DEF in my head. Anyways, the HP buffer Dozla has lets him still lead after three hits. The 14 AVO is nice, but it isn't definite. It means nothing if the RNG doesn't like.

Edit: And of course if you give it to Gerik, he will proceed to dodge 90% of magic attacks and whoever else you would've will never dodge, just because I said that.

Edited July 3, 2010 by Slize

[dondon151]

Give it to Duessel. FE favors concentrating resources, so +def/+res stat boosters work best on those with already high def/res.

[Rewjeo]

Heh, looking at the numbers more, Duessel is already way durable, so giving that to him would make him an even better tank. Yeah, Duessel does seem pretty good for it. I really need to start thinking more before I post stuff

[Integrity]

I really need to start thinking more before I post stuff

Yeah. I can echo that sentiment.

I'll give it to Duracell and push through C17 today.

[Integrity]

Ahem.

So there were pre-game funs: I bought six or eight more Vulneraries and a few Pure Waters. I could cheese up the rest of the game by using only Elixirs because I have so much goddamn money but I'm not going to. Duracell ate the Talisman.

CHAPTER 17: FREAKIN' SYRENE

Tana gets a deploy so she can recruit Syrene.

Tana and Syrene manage to both fight nothing and rescue nothing. All they did was hide in the middle. Garcia's Boots allowed Syrene to not even fight as a green unit.

Duracell procced only RES as his level.

I saved all the civvies, but didn't kill everything. Oh well. Hooray, a Rescue staff.

Dozla proved to be crucial this chapter, managing to mop up half a dozen or so Mages on his own.

Ephraim bought more Swordreavers and Killer Axes than I'll ever need.

Turn 10, Ross with his dad supporting him brought down Lyon with two Hand Axe crits. The first dropped the lucky fucker to 1hp. He countered and dropped Ross to 3hp. That was painful. :(

Gerik is starting to show that he's pretty bad comparatively. :( Except compared to Dozla.

-

So C17 was easy, just about as I expected. There're no stat-boosters available, so that's really it. Stats now, and yay for boring update.

Garcia    10.69  48|27|20|16|15|15| 8  A Ross
Ross      15.18  48|26|22|19|25|17| 9  A Garcia
Duessel   16.86  52|21|16|14| 8|20|15
Dozla      7.39  48|19|16|11| 6|12|10
Gerik      6.58  41|19|17|17|10|14| 6

[Integrity]

Excelsior!

C18 pre-game: Hand Axes Hand Axes Hand Axes Hand Axes Hand Axes

CHAPTER 18: HAND AXES

15 turns in total.

General strategy involved making sure everybody had Hand Axes and Vulneraries. Duracell took the Brave Axe so he could kill the boss without having to eat a Stone counterattack (it was 60%). It ended up being unnecessary as Ross killed the boss, but the Brave Axe still dropped five uses from killing a few Gorgons who were *that* much too close for comfort.

Garcia abused his Boots to get to the top left as quick as possible. He ended up being able to knock out all the eggs in the corner before they hatched.

Ross followed Garcia and mopped up eggs, but turned right instead of going up into the corner so he could get an extra trio. The boss aggroed him and missed her Shadowshot. Ross, fortunately, landed an Iron Axe crit (he would have killed it anyway since he doubled) so he didn't have to fear Stone.

Duracell made a rush straight right and squished an egg or two on his way to the boss's area.

Dozla and Gerik got the far right edge cluster and killed some spiders on the way.

I ended up having to let the eggs in the bottom right hatch because I didn't have the manpower to devote to them. Initially Ross went down there, but Garcia alone wasn't enough to kill all the eggs up top. At the end of the map, Dozla ate two Shadowshots and drank some Vulneraries to get Duracell in range to finish the two Gorgons and the two Spiders and the Goyle that spawned.

I forgot just how much damn XP drops in this mission. Wow.

Garcia capped STR. That's my first stat cap of the log.

-

All in all, that was actually a fairly light chapter. It required one reset and a lot of Hand Axes and maybe ten Vulnerary shots, but no Elixirs/Pure Waters/anything of the sort. Just 5 Brave Axe charges and 30 is enough for that anyway.

Next stop, and I'm probably going to dive right into this because I can taste the end is Rausten Court! Ah, this will be a joy. I'm not getting the treasure on this one.

Garcia    14.71  51|30|23|18|18|15| 9  Ross A
Ross      17.61  50|27|23|20|26|17|10  Garcia A
Duessel   18.35  54|23|16|14| 9|20|16
Dozla      8.62  49|20|16|11| 6|12|10
Gerik      8.35  43|19|18|18|10|14| 7

holy jesus garcia made four levels

[Integrity]

I'm feeling sassy and Rausten Court is an awesome chapter so moving forward straight ahead:

C19 pre-game: Actually, I don't need to buy anything and I have no boosters to allocate.

CHAPTER 19: INTO THE BREACH!

oh hell yes.

Dozla stays in the throne room to protect Mansel. Ephraim retreats to behind the throne room. Everybody else goes down and left.

Turn 5 Garcia crits Riev with his Killer Axe and ends it.

Nobody leveled (actually, I think there was one +hp level) so I'm not going to bother to mark stats.

-

Onwards to Chapter 20 and the endgame!

CHAPTER 20: LONG AND NOT VERY INTERESTING

I learned something tragic and painful. The Swordslayer is effective against swordfighters, not swords. Gerik is still a swordfighter technically. OW.

Turn 20 I actually killed the boss with Garcia's Dragon Axe, leaving him at 3hp. He survived a whole onslaught the next turn and drank an Elixir. From there I had to clear reinforcements and on and on until I could actually get Ephraim to the point. No Fliers, no Warp, no Rescue, just chewing and chewing. :(

Mouth Dogs fucking suck. Dozla and Gerik can't hit them and Garcia and Ross usually have better things to do. Duracell...well, was busy killing Beholders the whole map.

Turn 30 reinforcements stopped as I got Ephraim halfway from the Cyclops Pass to the castle. Turn 32 Ephraim ran the rest of the way and Seized.

-

Garcia    20.00  56|30|26|18|19|19|10  Ross A
Ross      20.00  53|27|25|21|26|19|10  Garcia A
Duessel   19.99  55|23|16|14| 9|21|16
Dozla      9.50  49|21|16|11| 6|13|11
Gerik     11.84  46|21|18|19|10|16| 7

Edited July 6, 2010 by Integrity

[Integrity]

And a third post in a row to break it up for the Final Chapter.

THE FINAL CHAPTER

Turn 14 Ross weakened Lyon with the Devil Devil Axe and Garcia finished him with a Killer crit.

Went straight up the right side, killing things in my way. Two charges of Pure Water and a few Elixirs, plus I got the Angelic Robe and dumped it on Ross.

Took the around way instead of triggering the reinforcements from breaching the middle because I'm smart.

Demon King time. :o

Duracell leveled, by the way, for HP and STR.

-

82-34-0 is Garcia's unsupported stats vs. Morty with Garm. Yeah baby.

Two turns. 1: Garcia blitzes Morty unsupported with Garm. 2: Garcia attacks Morty supported with Garm. Morty missed a 57% on the second attack (a calculated risk) and then dies in return.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

-

And I go to the map after fast-forwarding the Epilogue to give you my final stats.

-

EPHRAIM

Ephraim didn't do anything but be the convoy and Seize. He actually took attacks, which is more than most Lords can say.

B:12 W:0

GARCIA

Garcia was the man, dog. He held his place as awesome for the entire game and then some, despite promoting AFTER Ross (damn hero crest). Those Boots I decided to give him? Well, due to his positioning in the Final Chapter, they ALONE allowed my 2 turn clear. Thank you.

B:459 W:278

ROSS

Ross was not his dad, at first. He took a while to get going, as Ross always does - and then he started to clean house, as an overleveled Ross always does. By the end of the game, he wasn't my primary source of damage due to Garcia's 30 STR to his 27, but he was still half of my killer duo that made half the game possible by existing and the other half possible by tanking anything and everything.

B:449 W:284

DURACELL

Duracell was my most resilient unit when Ross and Garcia weren't supporting each other, which was more often than I'd like. 21 DEF and 16 RES pegged him the top of both stats out of my entire party, but a paltry 14 SPD - beating only Dozla - made doubling difficult in the endgame, not to mention dodging.

B:288 W:153

DOZLA

Dozla was as shitty as Dozla ever is. As compared to my Enemy Phasing Brigade, Dozla didn't get very many kills because there weren't any left damaged for him to finish unless somebody broke a weapon. Combine that with his poor durability and poor, well, everything else, Dozla was relegated to protecting Ephraim and chugging potions by the end of the game - but he did that well. It bears mentioning, however, that my 2-turn clear was almost messed up by an errant Zombie spawn by Morty which Dozla was able to clean up so Ross could support his dad for the kill. Amusingly, also, Dozla had my second-highest RES at 11.

B:136 W:57

GERIK

Given that Gerik joined late and was given a 10/1 promotion to a multi-weapon class where I didn't let him use the multiple weapons, he was pretty good. I gave him Steel Axes for most of the game to offset his low starting offense, and by the end of the game his STR had finally surpassed Dozla's. Combine that with generally higher durability for a passing, if not incredible, unit.

B:143 W:79

-

And that's all, folks. Man, that was interesting in the end. Had I kept the turn-by-burn synopses, it would have gotten...ridiculous, to say the least. C20 alone had 8-12 enemies per turn attacking me, at which point I'd probably have to heal instead of killing one back. I wish I could have finished C20 without waiting for the reinforcements to run dry - feels kinda like pussying out of it - but I can't see how I could have gotten Ephraim through that mess.

Now, at the end of this all, how was it? Should I give up running logs entirely? Should I go run a different log now that this one's done? I kinda want a new project...

Special thanks to Raymond for telling me where I ought to put all my stat boosters, IET and BBM for getting me going in the early game when I didn't have strategery on my side, Dondon for being smart, and Slize for...well, I dunno, but thanks anyway. :o

Cheers!

-Integ out.

Edited July 6, 2010 by Integrity

[dondon151]

You know, I was going to point out that since phantoms use axes, and since Knoll doesn't have to fight to be able to summon, that you could have used phantoms too =P