Soul's Maniac Mode playthrough.

[Junkhead]

I guess it's somewhat effecient if you include the fact I am going faster than I usually would just for some Exp.

Since this is probably the first playlog here, I thought it would be interesting to introduce a bit of it.

This is my first playlog, so I kinda apologize for making it kinda boring or senseless.

If any of you want more detail on my playthrough, as in, turn-by-turn, I really don't mind. I just wanted to see if this was alright. So if you actually want more detail, don't hesitate to ask.

Prologue

The typical. Face Boyd & Greil. Now add the fact Boyd counterattacks.

Unit    Lvl   HP Str Mag Skill Spd Luck Def Res  
Ike     2.44  21  6   1    7   7   7    5   1 

Chapter 1

I sent Oscar to weaken an enemy Fighter so that Ike could get the kill. Oscar criticals the Fighter once and then kills it. I move him aside blocking the way of the Fighter to the left and place Ike where the killed enemy was formerly positioned.

Titania goes past Ike & Oscar to kill an enemy Bandit up ahead, then I place her in the range of two enemy Fighters and a Myrmidon to the north-east of the map.

Boyd visits the first village to retrive the Steel Sword.

On Enemy Phase, the Fighter to the left decides to attack Oscar. Oscar weakens it.

A Myrmidon goes up to Ike, attacks, but misses. Ike attacks for chip damage.

Two Fighters take on Titania and simply suicide.

My turn. I get Oscar to weaken the Myrmidon that attacked Ike and move him closer to the second village while avoiding enemy range.

Ike moves a little bit forward and kills the Myrmidon.

Titania goes for the Bandits close to the second village and only kills one in this face.

Once again, Enemy Phase rolls in. The weakened Fighter to the south-west of the map takes on Ike and dies.

The remaining Bandit close to Titania suicides to her.

And a Bandit from the north-east aproaches Ike.

Titania kills said Bandit and places herself beside the boss.

Titania kills the boss, and then a remaining Fighter and Myrmidon face Titania only to die.

Ike seizes the throne.

Unit    Lvl   HP Str Mag Skill Spd Luck Def Res  
Ike     3.36  22  7   1    8   7   8    5   2 
Titania 1.29  33  12  4   13   14  11   11  7
Oscar   3.91  26  6   1    6   7   5    8   0
Boyd    2.00  30  7   0    4   6   4    5   0

Turns taken: 4

Commentary:

Wow.

Ike & Oscar being able to kill enemies by 3-4RKO'ing is disturbing. This is even considering both double every enemy that isn't a Myrmidon.

Chapter 2

While Titania was taking her time off the battlefield, I had Ike, Oscar and Boyd babysitting Rhys while he just stayed in the corner so he didn't get killed.

I sent Oscar to attack a Myrmidon close to him and have him move back to the group so that he could form the wall to protect Rhys. But carelessly enough, I left a whole open in the wall. Rhys was at enemy ranged and got attacked by a Fighter.

Boyd attacks the enemy Fighter so that I could kill it. Rhys heals Boyd.

Meanwhile, Ike and Oscar were starting to 2RKO.

Titania arrives. I placed her in front of Ike so enemies would attack her instead.

Boyd had pretty low HP, so I had Rhys heal him. Since my defensive formation was already broken, Rhys was left unprotected. I had Oscar rescue him and move him to safety...which was at the range of 1 enemy instead of 2...

I'm just glad I got lucky. I couldn't believe it, but the Fighter that attacked Oscar didn't double him despite carrying Rhys. So I had Oscar kill and enemy to the very left side of the map and had Ike kill the one that attacked Oscar. Boyd took Rhys and dropped him nearby.

Titania just went of to the right side of the map and take on every enemy there.

Unit    Lvl   HP Str Mag Skill Spd Luck Def Res  
Ike     3.87  22  7   1    8   7   8    5   2 
Titania 1.71  33  12  4   13   14  11   11  7
Oscar   5.54  28  7   1    7   9   6    9   0
Boyd    2.24  30  7   0    4   6   4    5   0

Turns taken: 7

Commentary:

...I did it again. *Sigh*

I can see here how much the enemy ammount starts increasing, meaning we'll rely on defending positions covering your weak units and Titania, much, much more.

Chapter 3

I had Titania attack a Fighter to the right and place her near the market stand so Marcia wouldn't appear until I cleared the path.

Ike went for the Bandit near the Fighter.

Shinon went for another Bandit to the left.

Gatrie just stayed where he was in case Ike needed to be shoved.

Enemies go for Titania and get themselves killed. Titania misses on 1RKO'ing a Myrmidon.

And Archer goes for Ike and chips him. The Bandit attacks Ike and misses, so Ike just kills him.

Shinon goes for the remaining Myrimdon.

Titania kills a Bandit blocking the way and places herself in range of a Fighter blocking the entrance to the ship.

Gatrie weakens the Archer that attacked Ike and then Ike kills it.

A Fighter attacks Titania. She kills it.

A remaining Bandit attacks Shinon.

Ike moves towards the ship while Gatrie goes to the house to the right and gets an Elixir.

Titania moves closer to the area where the boss and a few enemies are.

I have Ike talk to Marcia on my last turn, and then, get Titania to kill the boss.

Unit    Lvl   HP Str Mag Skill Spd Luck Def Res  
Ike     4.59  22  8   2    9   8   9    5   2 
Titania 2.39  34  13  4   14   15  12   11  8
Shinon  1.07  32  9   6   15   13  9    9   6
Gatrie  9.16  31  12  0    6   5   5    14  0

Turns taken: 6

Commentary:

This chapter reminds me of FE10's 1-5, where the NPCs just have to be smart enough as to stay away from danger and keep themselves alive without having you as ababysitter. It's kinda luck-based, exclude the fact you don't get a Game Over for loosing Marcia. But she's too of a good unit to loose, anyway.

I got noticed that this can be prevented by not making any of your units get past the market stands.

Edited July 9, 2010 by The leaving song II

[WeaponsofMassConstruction]

Awesome. Would you mind providing a sample enemy's stats?

[BEST TRYNDAMERE PLAYER]

If you were worried about Marcia getting wtfpwned on enemy phase you could have played it safer by just not having Titania pass the fruit cart(As passing it causes Marcia to appear) on Turn 1 and have her parked on that line with her Steel Axe equipped seeing as she will not 1RKO those bandits with her Iron Axe. You would be able to play it safer and still not waste turns.

[Sophius]

Aren't you using Titania a bit to much? Ike could have used some of her kils(I'm assuming you are not intending to use Oscar or Boyd)

[dondon151]

If anything, Soul is not using Titania enough. IIRC I cleared chapter 2 in 4 turns with Titania. You might be severely overestimating the performance of the rest of the team in the early chapters. You'll be able to make up the EXP deficit with BEXP anyway - even if the amount is significantly less in MM, you still get a considerable handful of it to spend on good units.

[BEST TRYNDAMERE PLAYER]

Aren't you using Titania a bit to much? Ike could have used some of her kils(I'm assuming you are not intending to use Oscar or Boyd)

In MM you have to use Titania a shitton unless you want to spend 5000 turns completing the earlygame chapters

IIRC I cleared chapter 2 in 4 turns with Titania.

On Maniac Mode?

Edited July 8, 2010 by Joey

[dondon151]

Yeah. Titania is still ORKOing in chapter 2.

Oh, also, Soul, remember that JP FE has the forge critical glitch. So you can forge 255 crit Thunders, Slim Swords, and Slim Lances (although the Slim Sword in particular is expensive).

Edited July 8, 2010 by dondon151

[BEST TRYNDAMERE PLAYER]

Yeah. Titania is still ORKOing in chapter 2.

Yes but the main issue lies in the first two turns you don't have her. Best you can do is have Ike and buddies huddle in a corner until she comes, although I can see how you 4-turned it now.

[Junkhead]

Awesome. Would you mind providing a sample enemy's stats?

Alright.

Aren't you using Titania a bit to much? Ike could have used some of her kils(I'm assuming you are not intending to use Oscar or Boyd)

Ike and Oscar aren't rushing through chapters anymore. As I stated earlier, they are 3-4RKO'ing most earlygame enemies.

If anything, Soul is not using Titania enough. IIRC I cleared chapter 2 in 4 turns with Titania. You might be severely overestimating the performance of the rest of the team in the early chapters. You'll be able to make up the EXP deficit with BEXP anyway - even if the amount is significantly less in MM, you still get a considerable handful of it to spend on good units.

I can agree that I've been underusing her during Ch 2 and probably 1. I could've used the same tactic that included having Titania block the enemy's range to Ike so they attack her instead. I just took a little more time to leave Ike and Oscar some kills before proceeding.

I'll post my Ch 4 log in a while along with the enemy stats.

[dondon151]

Yes but the main issue lies in the first two turns you don't have her. Best you can do is have Ike and buddies huddle in a corner until she comes, although I can see how you 4-turned it now.

She appears on turn 3. She should be able to reach the boss by turn 4, easy.

[Junkhead]

She appears on turn 3. She should be able to reach the boss by turn 4, easy.

The main problem would have to be the others getting cornered and hardly being able to kill, since this is a routing chapter.

[dondon151]

If you stick them in a corner and have Oscar lure enemies, you should be able to have Oscar, Boyd, and Ike rout the southwest corner with Rhys support.

[Junkhead]

Goddammit. My file got corrupted. I have to restart now.

[Zkirsche]

Well, at least you didn't get that far :/

[Junkhead]

Right. I'll edit my playlogs slightly considering I'll be using the same tactics. I might even shave off a few turns with the advise I got.

[Junkhead]

I edited a bit of my progress in the OP since I had to restart.

Chapter 4

This chapter is pretty rough on Rhys, and a little bit on Soren, too.

I make Shinon chip the Myrmidon close to him with a Steel Bow, then I get Gatrie to kill it.

Titania goes for the first Fighter to the closest Fighter and then place her in the center of the map.

Ike goes for the Soldier in the bushes to the north, he weakens it and Soren kills it.

I have Rhys stay to an Archer's range, since it's the only place he seems to be safe. *Sigh*

The enemies don't know better ways to suicide so they have Titania roflstomp them.

Two Soldiers dicide to go for Gatrie, he misses an attack on one of them. Then a Fighter decides to attack Shinon and misses. An Archer attacks Ike.

Later, I have Titania equipped with a Hand Axe and have her kill one of the Archers closest to Gatrie and move her to a healing bush at Big Bad's range.

I have Ike attack the Archer that attacked him, since he couldn't double, I had Soren kill it.

Gatrie kills one of the Soldiers Shinon helped chip.

Rhys moves to where Ike and Soren were, to the bushes.

Enemies keep dying to Titania's axe. And finally, Big Bad comes up to her. He misses. Titania counterattacks- And the second counterattack ends with a critical and kills him.

Unit    Lvl   HP Str Mag Skill Spd Luck Def Res  
Ike     4.99  22  8   2    9   8   9    5   2 
Soren   1.28  18  0   6    8   8   5    2   7
Titania 2.97  34  13  4   14   15  12   11  8
Shinon  1.20  32  9   6   15   13  9    9   6
Gatrie  9.56  31  12  0    6   5   5    14  0

Turns taken: 2

Chapter 5

I move Boyd a little bit forward so the enemies become visible.

Oscar goes up to the right Soldier and chips him.

Titania goes up the left Soldier closer to Boyd and kills it for a level up.

I moved Gatrie to block the entrance to the left so enemies don't trespass.

Same with Ike, I place him beside Gatrie.

A few enemies come to attack Shinon, Ike and Gatrie.

A Fighter wielding a hammer attacks Gatrie. Surprisingly enough, the Fighter only dealed 6 Dmg to Gatrie with average chances of hitting. Gatrie doubled for decent damage.

Then a few Cavaliers and Soldiers taken Titania and die.

Soren gets the enemies Ike and Gatrie went on weakening. Rhys healed Ike & Shinon as they went on loosing HP.

Oscar began doubling after a level up. I had Shinon and Titania weaken a few enemies so that Oscar could kill.

I had Titania eqquiped with a Javelin and missing a 1RKO one very few enemies, which meant they were for Oscar. Titania was on the ledge countering Archers and other enemies with 2-range until the boss attacked her. I changed to Hand Axe and killed the boss.

Unit    Lvl   HP Str Mag Skill Spd Luck Def Res  
Ike     5.89  23  9   2    9   9   9    6   3 
Soren   2.20  18  0   7    8   8   5    2   7
Titania 3.92  35  14  4   15   16  12   12  8
Oscar   7.38  28  8   1    7   10  7    11  1
Boyd    2.28  30  7   0    4   6   4    5   0
Shinon  1.49  32  9   6   15   13  9    9   6
Gatrie  10.23 32  13  0    6   5   5    15  1

Of course, since this is a Defense chapter, there is no turn out taken.

Edited July 9, 2010 by The leaving song II

[Zkirsche]

I'm a bit surprised at Shinon's relatively high exp gain to mine (he was only at level 1.33 by the time I finished chapter 7, for example), heck with the exception of Boyd, who you haven't really used, all of your units are at a higher level. I thought MM would reduce exp gain, if anything, not increase it.

Boyd counterattacks.

Boyd counteratatcks in HM, too.

[BEST TRYNDAMERE PLAYER]

I thought MM would reduce exp gain, if anything, not increase it.

There's much more enemies in MM.

[Zkirsche]

There's much more enemies in MM.

Yeah, but wouldn't the exp formula balance the out?

[Junkhead]

Well, unpromoted characters like Ike, Soren, Oscar & Boyd gain 10-11 Exp per hit on lower levels.

I've also been using Shinon for chipping, some killing and not to mention tanking. He's done alot of tanking thanks to Provoke.

[Zkirsche]

Well, unpromoted characters like Ike, Soren, Oscar & Boyd gain 10-11 Exp per hit on lower levels.

I've also been using Shinon for chipping, some killing and not to mention tanking. He's done alot of tanking thanks to Provoke.

This again surprises me, I had him tank a bit in my runthrough, but he ended up at 1HP after a few turns and I had to rescue him with Gatrie just to save him.

[BEST TRYNDAMERE PLAYER]

He's done alot of tanking thanks to Provoke.

It's not because of Provoke that enemies go after him, it's because he cannot counter melee range which is what 99% of the enemies are.

[Junkhead]

That encourages them to do that as well.

And I think Exp gain is the same as HM.

Chapter 6

I move all characters excluding Titania more into the forest so they aren't at enemy range. Titania equips the Hand Axe and kills a Soldier.

Enemies go for Titania and she kills them until she breaks her Hand Axe.

A Myrmidon equipped with a Steel sword aproaches Ike. I have Ike attack it for a level up. Then Oscar kills it.

Titania keeps on taking all the enemies to the right side and misses on 1RKO'ing Knights thanks to her lack of good 2-range with a Javelin.

I have Oscar rescue Ike and ferry him as close as possible to the goal without risking him.

An Archer attacks Rhys leaving him at very low HP. I heal him with a Vulnerary and have Soren attack is for a chip 5 Dmg.

Titania kills more enemies.

An Archer attacks Oscar and he counters.

Again, the Archer close to the start of the map attacks Rhys and leaves him at 4 HP. I have Soren activate Adept on the Archer and leave him in very low HP. I put Rhys out of danger.

Titania gets attacks an enemy blocking the way to the boss and later gets placed in front of the boss.

Oscar drops Ike in the right bridge.

Soren kills the enemy Archer that once threatened Rhys' life.

The boss gets killed by Titania.

Ike kills the Archer that was left at low HP by Oscar.

A Knight aproaches Ike and gets critikilled due to it being weakened by Titania before.

Titania kills all the enemies blocking the exit to Ike with a Short Spear.

Titania rescues Ike and then exits.

Unit    Lvl   HP Str Mag Skill Spd Luck Def Res  
Ike     6.69  24  9   3    9   9   9    6   3 
Soren   2.99  18  0   7    8   8   5    2   7
Titania 5.36  35  15  4   17   17  13   12  9
Oscar   8.09  28  8   2    8   11  8    12  2
Boyd    2.28  30  7   0    4   6   4    5   0

Turns taken: 11

Commentary:

I got so screwed in this one when it came to number of turns. For one thing, it was the lack of equipment. Titania's only decent 2-range weapon broke. And Oscar only had a Javelin with 7 uses and an Iron Lance with 2 uses. Also, most of the armours had 2-range.

Soren 5RKO'ing most enemies is very disturbing.

Ike is simply screwed due to constant WTD.

[Integrity]

I'm going to say something here just to say I am in fact reading this, Soul. <3

[dondon151]

Keep in mind that unlike in RD, Titania can use axes and lances at base, so if she runs out of weapons, just take them from Oscar and Boyd and plow them with BEXP later.