Axe only playthrough

[Tables]

Okay, I've thought about it and this is what I'm going to do.

Rather than starting a Nolan x Jill support, I'm going to make A Nolan x Micaiah, which I think I can do immediately. Then, Nolan will saviour Micaiah, and also have Resolve on backup. Combined, this should give him about 105 avoid as well as a general ability to destroy everything. I'm not entirely sure what he'll do, though... head north and kill everything, then head south, then west, then east, while Nailah and Volug head into the swamp and rescue someone? Vika will too, Muarim and Tormod will rejoin everyone, I think.

1-7:

Before this chapter, Jill is given Resolve, while Nolan gets Adept and Cancel. Everyone heads right, and meets up with Tormod and crew. Then they go onto the left hand ledge, take out the armours, open a few cells and go up. Resolve Jill easily takes down the enemies by the door (after getting killed TWICE by a 15% displayed hit...), then heads southeast to deal with reinforcements while Nolan heads towards the start to deal with the other reinforcements. Then they both converge on the boss, take out the enemies there, and Jill gets the kill. The Soliders in the right hand cell were let out, but didn't escape in time.

1-8:

As stated above, Nolan got Resolve and Saviour, and also got an A support with Micaiah. Also after a quick test run, I realised he needed 1 more STR to ORKO the initial Bandits with a Hand axe (he had 19 at 20/4, which is average, but needed 20), so cue 10 BEXP attempts to get 1 STR ¬_¬.

As for the actual chapter:

Obviously, this doesn't show much detail, but there's a few important point to be made from it. Firstly, there's a bandit right to the south of the start - very irritating for joining people back together. Secondly, every enemy in the chapter moves, except for the boss and 5 of his units. Thirdly, you MUST save at least one prisoner - and with a total of 5 Wyvern Riders in the chapter, that pretty much means someone has to rescue one. And finally, because of this playthrough's rules, I have four units that can never be attacked at one range, as they're forced to counterattack (the Laguz, if that isn't obvious), and only one unit who can fight.

Nolan started by heading just north and rescuing Micaiah, so he was in range of the Bandit to the south and all the enemies to the north. Sothe ran into the swamp away from enemies, Volug ran into the swamp, got Vigored, and rescued the north-western prisoner, while Nailah rescued Rafiel. Tormod ran towards the Bandit in the west of his start, Muarim ran south-east to avoid enemies, and Vika flew north-west into a gap nobody could hit. The result is that a lot of enemies died and the central area was secure for a few turns - but since it's so exposed, that wouldn't help for very long, so I needed to move towards the south island.

Volug continued through the swap on T2-3, and eventually got to the land and headed south before any enemies could reach him. Nailah took the quicker path through the reeds, letting Rafiel go to Vigor them once or twice. Meanwhile, Vika and Muarim kept running out of the range of enemies - or when in range, made sure there was another target to hit (such as a rescuing Sothe). Tormod kept tanking the Bandits until Nolan got there (which wasn't too long), then ran off to heal his wounds. Nolan moved towards the southern area, fought the Bandit reinforcements (easier said than done - these ones had hand axes and were 3HKOed) and then went west to kill the above mentioned enemies Tormod was distracting. After this, I had the Dracoknight to deal with - so everyone moved out of range while Nolan moved in. With the initial Dracoknight dead, the rest of the chapter was easy - Nolan could deal with an enemy in one place, get Vigored and shoved and block the other set of reeds. After that there was just the boss and Co to deal with, who were also easy pickings.

Fun fact: Nolan got hit a total of once in this chapter, and it was on turn 1. Ergo, Resolve was completely unnecessary and would have been better replaced with Adept.

1-9:

Do I really need to write about this?

1-E:

Much tougher than I expected - partially because I wanted to get all of the chests (in fact, I didn't manage to open any, Sothe just stole everything back).There are two obvious problems on this chapter:

1: Jarod has 3 Authority and therefore lowers my hit by 15% (bad for Jill whose skill isn't too hot) and raises enemy hit by 15% (bad for Nolan who is a dodgetank).

2: LEDGES. TOO MANY LEDGES.

Also, is a reason ever given for Tauroneo being unavailable? I mean, they've just given you Nailah and the BK, is it too much to ask for someone who can use axes <_<?

The basic strategy was to rush up the ledges, stop the thieves, then advance on Jarod. Rushing the ledges went badly, due to the early reinforcements and above mentioned hit problems, although I did manage to kill one thief. After I did get up, I struggled to gain a foothold, then proceeded to have to avoid the Meteor Mage who could almost OHKO Micaiah. Finally, after clearing everything up (and sending Volug to stand at the top of a ledge to block reinforcements), I trapped the thief and started stealing his treasure. He replied by stealing Micaiah's Vulnerary . I bought Nolan back to pin him in, leaving Jill to kill the armours and stuff near Jarod, and once Sothe had stolen everything (and Nolan had killed him), they moved in to kill Jarod - Nolan did that due to being generally awesome.

Edited June 8, 2010 by I Eat Tables

[Tables]

Posting rather than editing because since the last post was made, a lot of content has already been edited in (ergo, this is doubling as a bump)

2-P:

Everyone hides in the corner. Marcia recruits Haar, who goes and Zerg rushes a bunch of Dracoknights. On turn 8, he trades his axe to Leanne then rescues her (this actually turns out to have just wasted time - Brom gets a Steel axe in 2-1)

2-1:

Ugh. I'm not a fan of chapters with 2 units when one can't even attack. Nephenee saves the two houses around the start point while Brom kills some enemies near here. Then Brom heads downwards, recruits Heather, saves some houses and takes down the mage (who is irritatingly powerful). Then I lure the bandits with Brom while Heather gets the remaining houses - I managed to disarm one (the Steel Axe one) but Heather was too weak to steal the axe . After this, I went back to save Nephenee (she'd been sitting in a corner dodging a Javelin for about 7 turns), killed one of the armours just right of the start point, then killed Yeardley. Brom finished with 99 exp .

[Renall]

You can have Nolan or Sothe or whoever use Savior to keep Micaiah safe. Vika can rescue Tormod and fly off to nowhere. Dunno if Nailah can rescue Volug, or if she can untransform while carrying him.

I seem to recall that if a Laguz rescues someone while transformed, they retain them when untransformed even if it's no longer legal to carry them. Rescuing is when that's checked, and after that they just count as being held.

However, Nailah can never rescue Volug in any state in Part 1, because he's 2 Wt heavier than her untransformed and 1 Wt heavier than her transformed. Volug will always be transformed in 1-8, and I don't believe you'll have a Statue Fragment by then. Nailah can hit pretty hard in 1-8 even untransformed, too, so there's a chance she'd kill something regardless.

Edited June 9, 2010 by Renall

[Tables]

2-2:

Disappointing is all I can really say about this, I was hoping for something more challenging. Lucia and Nephenee acted as walls to the right, while Brom went up, got a decent level and took out the enemies there. Then he headed right, and generally kept heading right, while Nephenee and Lucia followed behind, standing in chokepoints. I managed to steal a Warrior's bowgun and the Secret Book, which is nice.

2-3:

This started off seeming very easy - Kieran rushed forward, takes out some enemies, then Geoffrey follows. Unfortunately, it got a little trickier half way through the chapter, particularly because I wanted the Speedwing and with only 1 unit, that's easier said than done. I used the allied units as decoys to lure enemies away, which helped Kieran and Geoffrey break through, until eventually the two of them were trapped in the top left corner (near the thickets, not the ballista) and getting attacked by mounted and ranged units ¬_¬. Eventually Kieran managed to move to be 1 space away from the door and Geoffrey followed, sitting in front of Kieran as a meatshield (Geoffrey managed to gain a level here, just to give you an idea about the number of attacks he faced). Kieran healed, smashed the door open, and 2HKOed the boss. Then Geoffrey siezed, with about 25 enemies left on the map.

2-E:

Hah, this went really well. I took 15 turns for the extra exp, didn't manage to get the Dracoshield or whatever it is in the south but did manage to kill Ludveck, and only about 10 enemy units were left at the end of the chapter. The basic strategy was Brom to hold the west stairs while Haar smashes everything in the right, but I eventually decided to switch them over (Brom had the Hammer and needed more exp, which there was on the right, while Haar's ORKOs helped more on the left). I wish I could say I switched them after taking down some of the thunder mages on the left and the Hammer dude on the right, but I actually sent Brom over and his first opponent was the one with the hammer . Generally, things stayed like that until the CRKs arrived, after which Kieran rushed into the nearby Armours and General - and got promptly hit by all of them . After healing, he didn't really make it much further, but lured some of the enemies away from where Brom was (he was never going to face that many, anyway). Haar meanwhile was in the bottom left section and thanks to using 2-3's Speedwing, was doubling some of the slower Swordmasters (the ones with Steel Blades - they have 19 AS), so it didn't take long until everything was dead. After which, he flew up, healed, and counterattacked Ludveck with a Hand axe, before finishing him the next turn with an Iron Poleaxe.

From now on, there's Boyd left to train a little, but the game should be relatively easy after that. I'm also really not sure if there's enough BEXP for Makalov to reach level 20 - probably enough for 15 or so, though.

[Integrity]

If I recall correctly from my 7 Zihark earlier today, just over 20k BEXP should run you from 7 to 20.

[Tables]

Hm, okay. Well, I'll see when I get there. And I'll get there after I play a little more. So... yeah.

[Tables]

Another subtle bump with an update, mainly because I need help on 3-1. But first...

3-P:

Wow, Boyd really sucks. He's a Warrior with 3 less STR and 2 less SPD than a General, and only one more HP. Nice balance there, IS. Asides from that there's not much to say - due to my lack of firepower I didn't get very far and barely managed to reach the enemies at the top of the map before the Laguz took them down. Ranulf tried to commit suicide but failed.

Now, 3-1... Boyd has gained +STR and +SPD on both levels, and I don't think anyone else has levelled up yet. But this chapter just seems impossible for me, with only 3 fighters. There's about 8 enemies that approach your starting position on turn 1, and all of my units 2RKO them, and I'm forced to deploy about 8 extra useless units who get attacked as the first priority. All of my attempts have resulted in the initial position being overwhelmed by about turn 6, regardless of my strategy (holding back means there's just loads of enemies and not enough vulneraries to go around, being aggressive means those initial enemies have to be left behind and the reinforcements kill me). I really need something clever that I could do with just 3 units... otherwise Ike is going to have to help.

Edit: I gave up. I simply couldn't find a way for Boyd, Titania and Gatrie to complete the chapter. So Ike helped, but only a little.

3-1:

The general strategy was for Titania to take out the Generals to the right, then head north and around, while Boyd takes the east path, and circles around with Titania and Gatrie crosses through the grass to the west. So that's what happened. Meanwhile, Ike stayed in the starting area and killed the initial units with Boyd and Gatries help, then stayed there to help the cats kill the reinforcements. After the southern half was clear, the unarmed GMs headed east away from the reinforcements, which Ike killed along with the Cats. Ike also managed to get an awesome level up. It took until turn 12 to clear everything up, mainly because of all the 1-2 range enemies and only have 2/3 units equipped with ranged weapons.

My plan for Ike from now on is to give him Blossom from 3-3, then BEXP him to 99exp and level him from a single attack (on him, not making an attack) once per chapter. He has 3-4, 3-5, 3-7, 3-8, 3-10, 3-11 and 3-E to do this in, so he'll get one level just from BEXP as well (which will probably be just before 3-E when BEXP levels help more). Asides from that, I now have 5 axe users: Boyd who is starting to catch up, Gatrie who will be awesome when his growths kick in, Brom who has 29 DEF somehow, Haar who has capped 2 stats and is a point from 2 more and Titania who is just awesome (but a tad slow at the moment).

3-2:

Ah, Silver Card. I sell all my swords and other weapons, then buy 5 Iron Axes, 30 Hand Axes (!), 20 Steel Poleaxes, 15 Iron Poleaxes and 3 Forged Steel axes, with exactly 8K left to spare.

With Brom and Haar joining, this was a simple chapter. Titania, Haar and Brom started off heading south, before Brom and Titania turned back up north. Meanwhile, Boyd and Gatrie and their C support beat a few paladins and Dracoknights, then are joined by another two and head further east. Haar stays towards the south, beats a few more enemies then takes down reinforcements and a few enemies near the boss, then rejoins the northern group. They then advance on the boss, first luring a few generals and Sages out - along with the Statue Frag Bishop who has his goods stolen by Heather. After Heather is rescued, Boyd is left in range of the boss (first time I tried this, him and his 30% displayed hit Dracoknights managed to kill Boyd ). Titania makes a gap for Boyd, who goes and kills the Recover Bishop, while Heather steals the boss's Elixir and Gatrie and Brom finishes him off. Full turn count BEXP + all but half a dozen enemies killed = good chapter.

3-3:

Haar heads straight north, burns some supplies and holds the Senators up for Heather to steal from. Everyone else heads towards the gate and kills the nearby enemies. Ike burns the most southern supplies and also visits the Blossom tent, while Heather steals from the Senators and does little else. Titania then heads through the eastern thickets while the others head along the west path, with Ike heading to the northern Supplies along with the Master Crown tent. Everyone else circles around, and helps take out the final supplies, doing so on turn 13.

A quick level check for the interested:

Boyd is level 15, and is generally okay, but slow (only 1 SPD down at 20, but that's enough to be annoying since the slow enemies tend to be 17AS).

Brom is level 15 and is a okay - capped DEF, but also slow (19 SPD), everything else is about average

Gatrie is level 16 and is generally awesome. Like normal.

Haar is level 18, and is more awesome than normal - capped STR, SKL, SPD, DEF and above average HP, LUK and RES.

Titania is level 19 but is 5exp from 20, so I'll BEXP level her and promote her before 3-4. She hasn't gained SPD yet, which is annoying.

Edited June 14, 2010 by I Eat Tables

[Tables]

Lots of updates as shown in above post.

3-4:

Yawn. Brom, Haar, Heather and Ike head up the cliffs in front off them, Ike as planned gets a good level up (all but MAG and LUK), Boyd, Titania and Gatrie go around the side, everyone cleans up the enemies, Boyd gets some more SPD and Brom gets a decentish level. It's a straightforward chapter.

Haar is level 20, so is just going for promotion now, Boyd has capped SKL and HP so likes BEXP, same for Gatrie who has capped STR, HP and SPD, Titania has obviously just promoted so likes normal levelups and Brom has capped HP and DEF so also wants BEXP. Ike should be awesome after promotion.

3-5:

Haar goes down the right hand side, with ease. Brom holds the left hand side (just about). Titania, Boyd and Gatrie go down the centre, and advance on the boss. Nobody really has any problems except Brom, who can't double and weakens enemies just enough that they keep running off to be healed . Ike takes an intentional attack from a mage for his levelup. Boyd and Gatrie generally go down the left-middle, while Titania goes down the right middle, and Heather follows Boyd and Gatrie along with Reyson. After clearing up most of the enemies, I take down the Sword Paladin in front of the boss, steal the bosses Energy Drop (which I currently have no use for, but whatever), and then Titania and Gatrie kill the boss, finishing on turn 8. Haar promoted during the chapter, of course.

3-6:

Yay, the hardest chapter in the game! Nolan goes north, and with his A support with Micaiah he's virtually invincible. Sothe also stands there, plugging the gap, but he's just 2HKOed by the Tigers who love attacking him. Jill takes the upper-right hand gap, while the Yellow units along with the BK hold the lower-right. I managed to get into a position where only a Cat could attack a Yellow sniper and something like 5HKOed him, so Micaiah just had to go back and heal him periodically (with Sacrifice, since staves are illegal), and of course the BK was invincible where he stood. I managed to take long enough on the chapter that Lethe and Mordecai arrived, so after killing Lethe I decided to have Zihark (who was deployed for T1, to block the north with Sothe and Nolan) recruit himself to the GMs for lolz and kill him as the last enemy unit. Fun fact: If you kill him as an enemy here, he dies .

3-7:

Gatrie is in that awkward phase where he's not quite doubling reliably with his 23AS, Boyd isn't either and Brom's 20AS certainly isn't doubling much. And since they're my frontline in this chapter, it was certainly fun trying to advance. They basically just smashed everything in front of them while Haar flew off to the side and took lots of enemies down. Except Nolan. 2nd Tier Nolan beat 3rd tier Haar in an almost 1 on 1 fight ¬_¬.

3-8:

Yay, everyone promoted! Brom and Haar went down the right while Titania, Gatrie and Boyd went left. Nothing else notable happened, except I finished in I think 9 turns, which was nice.

Oh, except for dodgemaster General. The General with the Storm sword was 3RKOed, and was still alive after 8 attacks at 66 to 81% displayed hit. To be precise and use true hit values he:

Dodged two attacks with a 77.22% chance of hitting (Gatrie)

Dodged one and got hit by one with a 79.84% chance of hitting (Titania)

Dodged one and got hit by one with a 92.97% chance of hitting (Gatrie w/Boyd support)

Dodged two attacks with a 79.84% chance of hitting (Titania)

Yeah. The chance of him being alive after 8 attacks is about 1/1,700. I can't even remember who killed him, actually.

Edited June 17, 2010 by I Eat Tables

[Tables]

Anyone still reading this?

3-9:

As suggested, I tried levelling Makalov with BEXP, then crowning him and seeing how that turned out. Badly, is the answer: I had enough BEXP to get him to level 16, at which point he had capped SPD and gained a fair bit of LUK, HP and DEF, but almost no STR. By comparison, BEXPing Kieran to 20 made him cap HP, STR, SKL, SPD and DEF, at the cost of some MAG, LUK and RES. I decided the latter was the better option, as after crowning Kieran could ORKO everything but two swordmasters, almost all of which he could do with a hand axe. Hilarity ensures as Kieran blitzes through to the boss with Geoffrey trailing behind and saving the villages, and Marcia saving the northern most ones. I saved 5 villages, got full turn count BEXP and also observed some of the stupidest AI I've seen in a while from the yellow units (the Javelin Paladin repeatedly attacked at 2 range then ran into a chokepoint, stopping the other Paladins attacks, while the Bishop decided to charge straight towards the enemies when healing).

Edited June 17, 2010 by I Eat Tables

[Integrity]

I'm still reading this, bro.

I'm sorta sorry Makalol didn't succeed, but not really because I hate that guy.

[Anouleth]

I'm reading this, and I am sorry that Makalov didn't turn out well, because I don't irrationally hate him like most people seem to do ;_;

[Joerachi]

You get alot of BEXP for 3-11. Makalov can get that.

[Tables]

True, but I honestly don't think I need or actually really want Makalov. He'd make a nice support partner for Kieran, but to be fair I have enough GMs anyway (6 now, 2 of which are Gold Knights)

3-10:

Does Elincia have a death wish? She charged straight up to the boss, and too quickly for anyone to cover her front ¬_¬. Fortunately, it all turned out okay as I was already destroying everyone there...

Brom and Haar took the southern route, Titania, Boyd and Gatrie took the north. Brom still has lol speed (23 at this point), which is enough to double enemies in the south on NM, and Haar took advantage of Pass to kill the Bishops before they keep healing enemies. Boyd's durability in the open field was noticably mediocre, with him having to heal a few times during the chapter, while Titania and Gatrie were obviously fine. They advanced quickly, with Reyson's help, on the boss, killing him just as Elincia decided committing suicide was a good idea. Meanwhile Brom and Haar had sweeped the south up and Haar had killed the nearby Dracoknights, before moving north himself to assist.

At this point, I finished off my supports. They're probably not optimal, but they work fine. Ike and Titania have an A support, making Titania even more invincible. Brom and Haar have a very modest A support, for all around boosts, and Gatrie and Boyd have a slightly worse A support - the same ATK and DEF boost, but 7 more hit instead of 8 avoid. Still, not too bad with axes...

3-11:

Yay, Kieran! And he's not underlevelled either. I got Tibarn and co to appear on turn 2, then directed them to avoid. Haar was used frequently to block hole squares I could remember or work out from enemy movement, which helped me to advance quickly through the chapter. I lol'd at watching an enemy bishop rescue a Paladin 2 squares away from it.

There's really not a lot else to say about this chapter... I could have done it faster if I used the Falcoknights to block holes, but it doesn't matter much, and I accidentally moved Titania onto a hole in range of a Horseslayer Dracoknight, which was fun (and also taught me the hard way that 100 avoid means nothing if you're paralysed), causing a reload.

So, now I finally get to use Tauroneo again, for the first time since 1-6. That was amazingly thought out, IS. Funnily, he's the weakest unit out of himself, Jill and Nolan, and I get the feeling I'm going to BEXP at least one of the latter up to 20 before 3-13 and crown them.

[ReformBlade]

I'm reading this, and I am sorry that Makalov didn't turn out well, because I don't irrationally hate him like most people seem to do ;_;

I keep telling you, it's not irrational. He's an awful human being who never learns anything.

[Narga_Rocks]

I keep telling you, it's not irrational. He's an awful human being who never learns anything.

http://www.serenesforest.net/fe10/promo.html

Class  	          Promotion      New weapon(s)
Blade Paladin     Gold Knight    Axe C

But yeah, I dislike him, too. 3 years later and he's still an embarrassment to Marcia.

[Tables]

3-12:

Nolan and Jill stand in a chokepoint while Tauroneo jumps down the cliff and holds a hand axe. Micaiah moves into support range of Nolan and orders the allied units to halt. Nobody else moves for the entire chapter, they just stay where they are and attack or heal every turn, and occasionally the allied units are ordered to Roam to take down Falcoknights near Micaiah. Easy.

3-13:

Nolan and Jill are both at a point where they want BEXP levels more than anything, so I BEXP both up to 20/20 and then crown them. Tauroneo, not wanting to be left behind, takes Paragon.

In the actual chapter, Nolan took the right and, with Beastfoe, easily soloed that side. Jill stayed mostly central and used her Canto to take down lots of the nearby Laguz, while Tauroneo took the left, standing mostly in front of the ledge going up to prevent the Laguz breaking through (there was a close call or two). After the centre was clear, Jill headed up and left to assist the 3-13 archer in his noble cause (the 3-13 archer survived), and Nolan lured some of the Laguz near Ike out for extra exp, but ended up being in Hand axe range of Boyd - which of course was just more free exp. Tauroneo had promoted by this point and also fought some GMs, but stayed out of range of Gatrie (I think he just fought Shinon).

3-E:

Ike finished his levelling and thanks to Blossom and BEXP, has awesome stats: Capped HP, STR, SKL, SPD and DEF, about 20 LUK, 10 RES and 4 MAG. It wouldn't surprise me at all if Ike ends up capping everything by the end of the game.

Everyone except Kieran basically just went forwards, no strategy, just fighting as hard as they could. It seemed to generally work, they got about halfway through the map. Kieran broke left, assisted the Beasts, then headed north and killed the Paladins there. After that he went up to the Generals in the chokepoint - before I realised he was in range of Nolan, who adepted him with a Hand axe and brought him down to 1HP. A lucky Sol bought his HP back up, before also performing Sol on the next 3 opponents who attacked him and not even getting hit once anyway, which saved me healing him next turn. Oh, except there wasn't a next turn, because the Hawks managed to get the kills up to 80, finishing the chapter on something like turn 6 or 7.

I've just started 4-P, but here are the teams and supports. I realised as I was distributing them that my supports really suck - I've paired a General with a Dracoknight twice.

Silver Team:

Haar x Brom (A)

Nolan x Micaiah (A)

Haar and Brom make a strange but effective team. Brom just took a needed Speedwing, and for 4-3 will be taking the Boots (8 move gives him 2 move in the desert). Micaiah isn't too hard to protect in general, and makes a nice support partner. If needed, Nolan can always take Saviour - effectively 10 CAP for 30 AVO and 2 MT.

Griel Team:

Ike x Titania (A)

Gatrie x Boyd (A)

Both of these teams are just generally good. Titania likes the avoid boost and Ike doesn't really care or need a support (Fire might be better, but meh), and Gatrie and Boyd gives attack and defence and makes Boyd pretty accurate when he needs hit.

Hawk Team:

Tauroneo x Jill ©

Kieran x (Renning) (X)

These supports need a little more TLC, really. Kieran doesn't have a support at the moment (well, C Geoffrey but that's not doing anything), while Tauroneo and Jill... it's a nice defensive support, I guess.

[Tables]

Yay, most of Part 4 in one post time!

4-P:

Nolan takes the east, staying mostly 3 squares from Micaiah since his biorhythm is moving towards worst, and takes everything around there down. Meanwhile, Brom and Haar head north, go into the field and decimate the Paladins and Generals, and manage to finish up in 7 turns. Easy.

4-1:

Blargh, FoW with enemies everywhere, and only 4 units to fight them. Ike is incredible, and displays this by getting 2 point level ups for his first 4 levels, and he Hand axes the south mostly on his own. Titania takes the upper right, dealing with the Generals and then heading south to rejoin Ike. Boyd and Gatrie take the East, then Gatrie breaks and heads south while Boyd deals with the reinforcements (and gets bought down to 1HP due to a lucky critical while I'm abusing Wrath). This wasn't the fastest chapter, I think I missed out on full turn BEXP.

4-2:

At the start of this chapter, I forged my endgame axes. I'm not sure who's getting what, but I forged (or intend to forge) 5 max Silver axes (boosts on these include +10 crit and +1mt) and 2 max Hand axes (including another +1mt, and a +20 hit). I named them after every sacred Axe in the series I could remember, so there is a Hauteclere, Armads, Basilikos, Garm and Swanchika, and the other two were named after my two fallen/unrecuited units, Zihark and Aran.

As for the actual chapter, Kieran went south and was generally manly (at least after he stopped missing 80% hits and then getting +HP levelups), while Tauroneo and Jill went west with Reyson. Nothing really exciting happened, Jill flew around to take out some enemies, Tauroneo took full advantage of Paragon and ended with something like 10 levels gained, but I was slow enough that after leaving Jill to take out Valtome and co., Kieran headed back to kill the southeastern reinforcements and Tauroneo headed back to kill the northeastern ones.

4-3:

Yay, Desert! Sothe and Micaiah filled their inventories with junk so they could send valuables found to the convoy. That way, I had Dragonfoe at least for 4-5. Nolan (who had Celerity for 3 move), Leanne and Micaiah headed east, Brom headed south, and Haar flew around being awesome. Haar took a Pure water turn 1 to avoid the Elsleep staff, but then Micaiah was put to sleep instead. Skrimir and Naesala helped shove her awake though. Nolan generally circled around, then headed down the centre to take out the big clump of units near Numidia (fun fact: Nolan has a pre-fight conversation with Numidia). Brom cut across the Black Knight to kill the enemies near Stefan, who Micaiah then recruited, then he headed back as he had to kill some Dragon Lords. I would have finished this chapter about 5 turns faster than I did, but for some reason, after I moved Haar next to a Sniper reinforcement, the Sniper refused to move on his turn. Had that Sniper attacked, he would have died and the chapter would be clear, but since he didn't, 3 Dragon Lords had to be killed and while that was happening, more reinforcements spawned in the south .

4-4:

Since I'm bored of giving a vague "some people did this while others did that" story, here's a summary of each character's contributions. Piece them together to get the entire chapter.

Titania didn't get very far in this chapter. She went east along the corridor, killing everything with Boyd's help, then kinda just mingled there, killing the reinforcements in the north-east and the south, and also the Sages.

Gatrie started off following Titania, but then climbed the Ledge into the centre, fought off hordes of enemies in the corridor with Boyd, then headed north-west into the upper room. From there he took out most of the enemies around Oliver.

Boyd climbed up the ledge right at the start, and cleared the way to and inside the first treasure room. After that he headed towards the centre and assisted Gatrie in clearing the enemies in the northern corridor, and got as far as killing the guards in front of Oliver's room, before turning back around to kill reinforcements spawning near that first treasure room (actually, he left before those reinforcements arrived, but yeah).

Ike climbed straight up to protect the LEA, then after clearing out that area headed straight up towards the treasure rooms. He took a sleep staff dodge first, before clearing both the guards to those rooms, the nearby enemies, and the enemies inside. After that he headed towards Oliver's room to help Gatrie finish things off.

The LEA hid. First the avoided the nearby enemies, then they just headed into the central area where nothing could reach them.

Rafiel started by following Ike, but after he went to the upper floor he followed Gatrie instead, heading into Oliver's room. Oliver recruited himself, and after that Rafiel generally had little left to do.

Heather trailed behind Boyd, staying out of range of the nearby enemies, then went into the first treasure room and opened the chests. Then she headed straight towards the upper-right treasure room, taking the chests in there, before finishing off with the upper-left room.

Oliver unequipped his tome, then ran.

[Integrity]

Nolan has a special conversation with Numidia? So he does. All the Brigade do! Huh.

I am the desert, and I brook no incursion.

-

You actually recruited Tanas? hee hee.

[Tables]

Yeah, recruited everyone except Aran, because I didn't have enough axes to do so :P (I would have if I'd replayed chapter 1-2 and not been so determined to kill almost everything, but that's a long time in the past now).

[Tables]

Let's go to endgame.

4-5:

Kieran has Beastfoe and heads left, taking down some Cats and Tigers, before heading up and right in the reeds. Jill with Blossom and Tauroneo with Dragonfoe head right from the start, killing everything in one round, and generally being awesome. They easily break through the Laguz lines, and Jill flies over and 1RKOes Izuka with a forged Hand axe on turn 7. Screw the massive exp gains here, I have BEXP.

4-E (prep):

Almost everyone gets BEXPed up to max (at first I was just seeing how many people I could BEXP to 20/20, but when I realised it was almost everyone I just kept going), exceptions being Jill (who capped everything bar 1 SKL at 20/16), Kieran (who only had HP and DEF capped at 20/16, since he seemed to think getting single points levels was cool from about 20/10) and Renning (no caps, obviously). I forged some more Silver axes and Hand axes with my excessive money, so everyone had a forged Silver axe and two forged Hand axes for endgame (probably overkill, but who cares). Ike will take Urvan, Nolan has Tarvos and Boyd has the Brave axe (I think). I forgot to sort skills out at this point, so I did it before 4-E-2 instead. Naturally, my 10 units chosen were Haar, Brom, Nolan, Titania, Gatrie, Boyd, Tauroneo, Jill, Kieran and Renning. Rafiel was my Heron.

4-E-1:

Blargh, sleep staves. The plan was for Renning and Kieran to stay together and take the right hand side, Brom and Haar to take the left while everyone else kills Generals. Unfortunately, Ike being put to sleep on turn 1 when he was right in front of the upper Generals was not helpful, especally as Nolan was too. I considered restarting since I knew I was going to fail, but decided to keep playing for lolz. Titania rescued Ike and ran back, and to improve the formation, Gatrie rescued Nolan. A few more moves and those two along with two others (who I can't remember) got vigored, and I made a frontline of awake people with Ike and Nolan behind, and Kieran and Renning came back to fill in some gaps.

This strategy worked well for defending everyone, except then Boyd and Kieran got Sleeped too ¬_¬. I tried to reform my frontline, although it wasn't really necessary since no more Generals were moving to attack, but Brom and Haar moved in on the left anyway. Then Lekain did me a huge favour, and silenced everyone, waking the sleeping beauties.

Turn 4 now, and suddenly it looked like I could almost end things. A deft strike forwards left me in an excellent position: Haar took out Lekain then headed east, Daunting lots of the nearby Generals (not necessary, but nice anyway). Brom stood in Lekains old place, killing the Generals there. Kieran and Renning took out a nearby Bishop, then headed back onto the path they were supposed to be destroying anyway. A few units in the central army moved forwards to attack (in particular, Boyd and Nolan are strong enough to ORKO the Generals with a forged Hand axe, while everyone else needs their Silver), taking out some Generals, before Rafiel comes into the gap and lets them strike again - taking down both Hetzel from two range, the other Sleep Bishop, and all but 3 Generals, who were boxed in anyway. Enemy phase, and a few more units suicide, and 3 more Generals arrive.

Turn 5, and there are 11 units alive (so I think I can clear the chapter this turn) - 4 of which are standing on Defence tiles, one is a Physic Bishop behind a General and a Sniper on the right (and so can't suicide on enemy phase), 3 are Generals near the bulk of my army and one is still alive besides Brom on the left. Kieran and Renning take out the General and Bishop, but since they cant ORKO the Sniper, Haar flies over to assist. The clump of units in the top right is the main problem - since some units are 3RKOing them and it's hard to weaken everyone. Fortunately, I have enough units standing around (or flying around) to get a good hit or two in on each of them, using Titania to rescue Tauroneo at one point for extra attacks, and so the chapter finishes on turn 5 enemy phase. The long description might give it away, but I'm pretty pleased with that result, it's much faster than I anticipated clearing the chapter.

4-E-2:

Only Kieran and Renning are deployed, and they recklessly charge the enemy with Hand axes equipped. Ike has a Hammer and easily ends things on turn 2. I deliver the final blow with Urvan to show Griel how it should have been done.

[Tables]

4-E-3:

Dragons! I started with a little Gambit, rushing everyone forwards to clear as many dragons out as possible. It worked, and by the end of turn 1 most of the dragons at the top were dead, but I had the ones on the sides to deal with - Nolan took the White dragons on the left with Haar and Gatrie's help, while Renning and Kieran dealt with the Red dragons on the right, with Boyd's help. After that, Brom and Haar (thanks to Rafiel) went towards to top-right with the two dragons, while Jill, Tauroneo, Ike and Titania took the upper left. As both armies roflstomped the nearby dragons, Gatrie (with Dragonfoe) headed up the centre, clearing the dragons there out and almost dying as the White Dragons move unexpectedly. Still, I clear everything around Deghinsea fairly easily, and then with the help of Ena and Kurth, Ike, Nolan, Boyd, Jill, Haar and Titania kill Deghinsea.

4-E-4:

Everyone moves south with a Hand Axe equipped. I kill some spirits. I clear the spirits around Sephiran. I kill Sephiran with Ike, Jill and Haar. Yawn.

4-E-5:

Woah, this was MUCH tougher than I expected - I'd say it's harder than I normally find it on HM, probably because I had very few blessed ranged weapons (and the ones that were are weak - 14mt), only having 4 units can double the Auras, all needing Nasir's help to do so, and finally no Fortify staff or healing at all except self-healing.

Since I couldn't do nearly as much damage as quickly as I wanted to, I opted instead for a slower strategy, taking down 2-3 Aura's per turn. Turn 1, Nasir and Ena placed themselves to boost Ike, who made easy work of the first Aura with Urvan. Gareth also placed himself to boost a few units, and between the rest of my units and Rafiel, I took down the southern 3 Auras and two Spirits. Ashera's AoE attack had me stumped for a few minutes, since it would OHKO Rafiel even with Kurth's help as well as seriously weakening the entire team, but I eventually found I could rescue Rafiel with Renning, then take and drop him with Boyd on a cover tile, letting him survive.

Turn 2 and a few people had to heal, so the main tasks I had were taking down two auras, placing the dragons strategically, and killing off as many Spirits as possible. I took down the two central auras, placed the dragons how I thought would be very useful but actually just wrecked my turn 3 (Nasir and Ena were both standing directly next to the upper-right corner aura, so very little could attack it), and managed to kill all but one Spirit. Ashera killed off Kurth, which wasn't nice, but oh well.

I wanted to finish things on turn 3, but I quickly realised that thanks partially to the fail dragon placement, I had no chance and would barely be able to finish on turn 4, in fact. I took down another two auras, leaving just the upper right one, and since this AoE attack hit RES, which axe users are notoriously low in, I needed to make some defensive moves, keeping people as far away from Ashera as possible and rescuing Rafiel. I did manage to kill the other Spirits, which was kinda necessary since otherwise Boyd would have been killed by them.

Finally, turn 4. With a little help from Gareth, Jill, Nolan, Titania and Boyd killed the last Spirit, and then I had Ashera to deal with. Haar + Urvan + Nasir + Ena dealt some pretty heavy damage to her, and Kieran did the same, leaving Ashera in range to be killed by Ike. He missed the first attack, got bought down to 1 HP then finished things off .

So that's the end. Nolan was my #1 person, with exactly 300 kills by the end of the game. Haar was 2nd with Jill just behind, then Nolan and finally Titania in 5th. I'm not sure how, but Lucia, and a few other people, had a kill according to the records - but Lucia never even had a chance to kill anyone since she never equipped a sword during a chapter, so I don't know how the game figured that one out. It's a mystery I'll never solve.

[Interceptor]

Credit for kills in 3-10, perhaps?

[Tables]

Ah, that'd be it. I forgot she appeared as a green unit. Most other units I could work out, like Zihark and Lethe since they appear as allies/other units at some point, but I forgot Lucia does :P. Only other units with kills were Leonardo, Micaiah and Edward (1-P)

[Integrity]

Applause. Bravo, sir, bravo. I'm amazed.

I'm surprised you finished 4-E-5 in four turns, actually.

Edited June 25, 2010 by Integrity

[Fenrir]

congrads.