Yet another FE4 Playthrough

[Parrhesia]

Finally started playing last night. I'll have to sum up Prologue to 2/3rds through Chapter Two in one post. This should be fun.

As I settled deeply into my chair and noted the storyline in a vague kind of way, the first thing I noticed about the game was "What the fuck is wrong with Ardan's eyes?" After failing to figure this out, I got down to business.

After Ardan's eyes, the second thing I noticed about FE4 was that Sigurd and the Christmas Brigade are nigh-unhittable on forests. Normally I'd advise skill to be a dump stat, but not if you live in a deeply forested area and favour a large axe. Anyway, Sigurd's lads cut down the first wave of zombies enemies, and I became slightly worried at how often people were calling the people of Verdane "savages" and "barbarians". Poor guys. They need to invest in better PR. I'm sure Gandolf's nose didn't exactly help.

Lex and his pet mage arrived, and I promptly forgot about their existance, thus causing half a building to be burnt down. This irked me somewhat. By the time Cuan's lads arrived I had cast away my usual cordial manner when it comes to deeply forested green-clad nations and was ready to plunge into the fray! Unfortunately, I was somewhat inept with positioning, and so Sigurd's men (and Lex and Hazelnut) were surrounded. Not to worry.

Then for some reason I decided that Sigurd needed healing, and placed him on a church. Expecting some kind of "Give us cash for X HP" option, I found nothing, and waited. This meant that the cavalier equivalents were on their own in the heart of the foe. Cuan led his men into the east, killing a couple guys. Ardan plodded on behind them. I decided to try out Ethlin's combat capabilities, did around five damage, and gave up on her being a warrior forever.

When Sigurd was done healing up at the church, he decided to take a merry jaunt west and then south, saving both villages like the awesome hero he was. I dithered somewhat with regards to everyone else. I was terrified the Axefighters surrounding diMaggio would swarm someone and kill them, so I came up with the brilliant idea of chipping at them then running away for another go. I realised this had some disadvantages when the Speed Ring village was almost gone, so I shrugged and barrelled in.

I didn't know the Speed Ring village was a Speed Ring village, so the most useful piece of kit in the army (besides the Steel Sword, now christened "The Sword of Manliness") went to Fin, probably the man with the least possible need for it. I think it was Alec who took down Joe diMaggio in the end.

Anyway, Gerrard (or whoever the western guy is called) called up his super bridgemaster to replace a massive piece of woodwork he'd taken down only a couple days earlier. That guy's talents were wasted on brigandry, I feel. Some nations would kill to have a man that could make and break important tactical landmarks so easily. Sadly, he was cut down when a throng of cavalry stampeded over his head, and Gerrard tasted the Sword of Manliness's fatal bite. Prologue complete!

CHAPTER ONE

Started up with the arena! Yay~ Anyway, as Noish is a rubbish character and Alec has a rubbish weapon (I had assumed I could buy multiple Slim Swords. I discovered I could not, so Sigurd was using it as backup for the Sword of Manliness at the moment) they pussied out before the lance knight. Ardan was just rubbish in general, and pussied out before the mage. Ethlin, who would retain the title of my most useless fighter for about two more turns, had the unique ability of A) Having a sword to kill the axe dude and B ) having almost decent Res and Speed to 2HKO the mage first. Sigurd and Cuan both failed at the second mage (level 6, I think) and Fin made it either to or just past the Swordfighter; regardless, he lost at some point. Lex beat the Lanceknight, and somehow I didn't think he could take a WTA insanely fast Steel Swordfighter. This left Azel, who surprisingly enough made it to the Lanceknight, but I didn't feel like testing my luck further, and Midir, who beat the Lanceknight, a Hunter called "Hood" who looked like a Turkish prostitute, and I believe either gave up or lost to an Armour.

In a display of magnificent tactical aptitude, I charged Fin out to the front lines. With one hit point, near a Mountain Thief with WTA. Fortunately for me, he decided that instead of bagging himself a knight and getting curbstomped by Sigurd, he'd rather potter off to almost be in range to burn a village. I curbstomped him with Sigurd.

Hi Dew. Hi dealing 3 damage and not doubling the ten enemies chasing you. Screw the village, bolted for it with Aideen. Anyway, Kinbois charged up with his horde of large, hairy men to bash some heads.

I must have done this part six or seven times. Maybe more like ten. Anyway, in the end, Kinbois was brought down by the Sword of Manliness, and I was confronted with a rather disturbing image. "Hand acquired!" I pondered briefly what to do with Kinbois's hand, then finally decided to sell it to Lex...that would have to wait until next chapter though.

Foolishly, I didn't save in a seperate slot here. So I charged in like a fool, and Aira charged up like a beacon of death. Then I realised nobody could talk to her, presumably until I took the castle. "I know!" I thought. "The brigands are coming at me from the southeast...if I can run around the woods, seize the castle and get someone to talk to her...it'll be easy! Just watch!"

This didn't work, so I had to kill Kinbois again. This time I kept Cuan and Noish on hand to run away and bait Aira while Sigurd takes the castle while everyone else took on the ten axe dudes chasing Dew. This worked rather nicely, even though Noish had to dodge four of the six attacks that came his way when Aira procced her special thing. They ran past her and she was recruited rather neatly.

Now to kill Gandolf and move further west (the southwest village was burnt to the ground, because Fin missed the OHKO by 2 HP) and ooooohhhhh shit that's a big forest. Fin ran west to nab the newly minted further southwest village, as Sigurd fell in love. Aww.

Guy from village: About 17-18

Yo, boss. She's legal~

Anyway, as my cavalry-heavy force trudged at an excruciatingly slow pace through the woods, my plans were somewhat injured when Jamka refused to not proc anything. He critted Ardan, 3-shot Cuan, 2-shot Dew, 3-shot Cuan again, 3-shot Ardan before finally Sigurd was doubled and survived. All it takes is a pretty face with some history for Jamka to spontaneously turn on the army he was leading (after we had killed both his brothers, too). No "Come on lads lets kill that mage", no "Turn back now they'll tear us apart", not even "Surrender or be killed". Just turns around and 3-shots a dude on the first turn I own him on. Well, despite being somewhat worried about his loyalty (and Midir being somewhat worried about his job security) everyone moved forwards and Sandima was killed rather easily. The twelve dudes in front of Sandima...not so much. But in three turns they were gone and I had the castle! Hah! Nothing can stand before Sigurd's perpetually unstable-looking gravity-defying hair!

While this was going on, I had somewhat of a dilemma. I knew that Lex could get an axe which would save him from being somewhat mediocre. I knew it was at the shoreline somewhere, and had a vague idea which shoreline...luckily enough, after a couple of wrong guesses, I got the Hero Axe, and immediately he became my third-best unit. Woo!

I'll write more when I fight more. Which means...tomorrow.

Edited August 31, 2010 by Agent Dale Cooper

[Smiley Jim]

What pairings are you going to use, good sir? I can see you have at least some experience playing this game, so you should know some good pairings by now.

I haven't played FE4, but here are some pairings that I know actually work:

Edain x Midir(Lester gets pursuit + hero bow, Lana will become a good healer)

Ayra x Lex(60% def growth on swordfighters? Elite? Ayra getting a hero sword? WTF is this shit?)

Lachesis x Fin(This will give the kids pursuit(which they need) and prayer. Only drawback is that Fin loses all his lances in the 2nd gen, and that he needs to KO Shaagal to give Delmud shit.)

Sylvia x Claude(If you must pair her, I'd recommend this guy? Why? Corple becomes your best staff-bot thanks to the Valkyrie staff, and it's the only thing saving him from being worse than the sub.)

Fury x Levin(Thought Levin was ridiculous? Sety is even more so thanks to pursuit + continue + Holsety. Fee should turn out great, but if not, a convo in C10 will fix that.)

Tiltyu x Azel(The kids get pursuit + minor Fala, fixing any mag issues they would've had otherwise.)

Briggid x Holyn(Faval is still good, Patty can actually do good damage with luna + hero sword)

lolDeirdre, lolEthlin.

Now, the pairings I put up are debatable. Several guys said that Levin x Tiltyu is a good pairing, since it gets you a MOUNTED Holsety user(and joins C6). Lachesis x Beowulf works if you are anal about Delmud getting weapons. Ayra x Holyn also works(Ayra gets hero blade + the kids get luna), but major Odo doesn't do a whole lot other than giving them +60 Skl(and Skashka/Lakche already have peerless skillz that defy the gods anyway even with minor Odo)and you can't even get the Balmung on them unless you use the Balmung glitch(though if you did THAT, Holyn!Lakche would be broken as all fuck.). Actually, you could pair Ayra with anyone except the three magic dudes and the kids would still be gods. I also forgot to mention that the subs for Sylvia's kids may actually be better than the kids themselves(check it yourself.)

Some fag on GameFAQs said that Levin is Sylvia's best pairing, but I don't buy that for even one second. Whoever said that doesn't know the word 'efficiency'(in other words, its inefficient to raise a Lv1 priest that joins in Ch9)and shouldn't be taken seriously in character debates. This guy obviously likes to baby units.

Edited August 15, 2010 by DA125

[Parrhesia]

What pairings are you going to use, good sir? I can see you have at least some experience playing this game, so you should know some good pairings by now.

Actually, I don't. All I know pairings-wise is that I intend to wing it, apart from a vague hope for DewXBriggid, because fuck Dew ever being on the frontlines. Stay a lovely safe 3 range away from the hated foe. Midir or JamkaXAideen is the other one I have a vague plan for.

[Thor Odinson]

Now, the pairings I put up are debatable. Several guys said that Levin x Tiltyu gets you a MOUNTED Holsety user(and joins C6).

Arthur comes at C6 with Holsety indeed. Levin also sticks Critical on any of his kids.

If you want to go LevinTiltyu, then ClaudeFury and Unpaired!Sylvia is recommended. ClaudeFury makes Sety into a magic tanking staff god that can still kick ass with just Elwind, and Fee gets B staves and complete immunity towards C10 and Endgame Sleep staves so you can stick the Res ring on somebody who needs it, while she goes and ROFLSTOMPS dark mages because they have no defense.

If you want the most overpowered playable mage in the history of Fire Emblem, then go with most/all of DA125's pairings, even though I have preferences for some others.

DewBriggid's only two drawbacks are low HP, and Patty's low bases. He has great growths in everything but HP, Mag, and Res, though, and I usually use that pairing over Holyn, simply because I'm a HolynAyra fanantic. But if you go LexAyra, Holyn is the more preferable pairing for Briggid.

As for Ayra's pairings, Lex gives you tanky Swordies that can probably promote around C8. Holyn gives you completely-overpowered overkill machines of death, and very high HP which is more preferable in Endgame due to more magic enemies than physical (Lakche's average is 70. Suka's is 75 or 76, I forgot), and you can even exploit the Balmung glitch so Lakche can overkill more. Not to mention nobody can survive a MoonlightCrit when you get over 50 kills on their weapons. NoishAyra can do insane amounts of damage if RNG works out in your favor (Attack, Continue, Pursuit, Continue, up to twenty rounds of that with CHAAARGE, all with Meteor and comes with free Critical---that's up to 4x5x20=400 hits per turn max. Holy crap ). It all depends what you want. Honestly, the worst pairing for Ayra is not pairing her at all.

and you can't even get the Balmung on them unless you use the Balmung glitch(though if you did THAT, Holyn!Lakche would be broken as all fuck.)

I did that (and gave Shanan Lakche's 100 kill Hero Sword for compensation) on my Lakche Kills Thing PT, and lets just say NOTHING can stop her. However, Shanan has worse average stats than Lakche (he has awesome bases, but 20% growths in SPD, even with a 23 base isn't going to cap unless blessing happens, whereas Lakche will almost always cap), so it's recommended that you keep Balmung on him unless you are doing a special playthrough that requires Lakche to be the most broken person in the FE universe, since Lakche is broken enough and will kill everything anyway with even a slim sword.

Alvis died. Endgame Julius died. All by her blade. Even Holsety!Sety can't beat that. Mainly because Alvis has WTA against him and Julius has 10 higher Res than Def, though. Arion was ORKO'd as well.

Edited August 16, 2010 by Luminescent Blade

[Luftwaffe]

Personally, I found Ardan's eyes beautiful, or something.

[Parrhesia]

Again, I'll likely just go with whatever happens as I move along. And here's a good place to type up most of Chapter Two without being accused fairly of tl;dr!

CHAPTER TWO

Arena time! I was lucky and Sigurd rolled through the arena, recruiting Holyn at the end. Cuan rolled through the arena afterwards. Jamka also rolled through the arena, although he was helped by two lucky crits in the last two stages. A bowfighter shot down Midir's hopes. Noish was stopped by the Lanceknight, but Alec made it past with his epic Iron Lance skillz. He gave up against the Swordfighter. Holyn beat the Swordfighter, but wasn't able to make it up to his own former position, oddly. Aira was humiliatingly unlucky against the lanceknight, and Hazel didn't even bother against him (was lucky enough beating the Elfire mage). Fin got either up to or narrowly past the Swordfighter, again. I think up to. Ardan versus Elfire? Hahahah...not on your life. Deirdre...didn't bother with her. Aideen...yeah. Ethlin once more beat the axeman and the mage and gave up. Lex beat up the mage, levelled up and got nothing. Then he lost to the lanceknight, but I noticed he 2HKO'd with Hero Axe. So he did that, levelled up and got nothing again. But Dew provided the greatest hilarity of all. The axefighter he faced had 40 HP, 2% hit and a rather neat 9 def against Dew's 9 attack. 40 hits and dodges later, I repaired Dew's sword.

Onwards! Eva (or possibly Eve) died quickly and I realised I had to blitz an Axe Knight with two Javelin hits and then Canto Sigurd onto the tile. I did this and Alva and Eve (or possibly Eva) marshalled themselves against the threat as the rest of my cavalry barrelled in. After Midir softened Elliot up Fin smashed in his head and took his lance. Eve (or possibly Eva) died, and Alva was left on half health, but it was relatively painless to eradicate the Heinheim Mounted Co. menace. The armours were a harder challenge, and it seemed at one point as if Noish was facing certain death; then Alva charged into four armours (one sword, one axe, 2 lance) and killed a couple of them. The ballistae were easy; I was surprised when I remembered I needed the Hero Axe for Lex to double something with -27 AS. Sigurd took the other.

Elliot's father's house was charged by the prepromotes -- and Lex, who at level 15 or so was almost promoted himself, and they had a nice merry romp amongst the armoured sluggards. Sigurd was level 16, so understandably I wanted Cuan to get the kill. He didn't get the kill...Lex did. It took a while.

So as they were rather inefficiently doing their job, my dudes were making a rather neat battleline in front of the currently-neutral Macbeth's dudes. A fat, red-clad squinty-eyed nobleman called MacBeth...not evil at all, right lads?! I can imagine the conversation...

Captain: Hey! Why are your men arraying against us!

Holyn: No reason.

Captain: You have archers and a mage over there! The bowmen have arrows ready!

Holyn: Just stretchin'.

Captain: Why are your men fully armoured and equipped?!

Holyn: Dunno.

Captain: ...

And of course when Lex had finally chopped Elliot's pimp into pieces, they attacked, and Holyn killed one and mutilated the others. Fin rashly charged forwards to take out the Captain; he did, but was in range to trigger the armour charge. Not to worry; after chipping the axe armour, Sigurd and Lex had almost caught up and Cuan was already there; he had given him a Hero Lance last turn. So much for Elliot's prized lance. So Fin just moved leisurely backwards to toss a Javelin and run to the back lines and get healed.

Oh, wait. He doesn't have a Javelin. And that means, instead of 'attack', I hit...'Wait'. Shit...

Alec charged in to be his human shield, although he was in only slightly less danger. Everyone else formed up in a ragged line to take the incoming charge as best they could...

"Nodion Phase". Oh, yeah, that Cross Knight's still tagging along with us-

HOLY SHIT HE'S TAKING ALL THE ARMOURS ON BY HIMSELF

So after chipping the entire enemy army, everyone else charged in a glorious, still extremely ragged line and cut down all but four armours. Most of these were killed by enemy phase. But now, Voltz's dudes charged in and I had to form a defensive position. Just recruit Beo and double back...

"Ten grand. Okay, cool."

...Oh, yeah. I can't Canto after talking. Fuck.

Beo ran away. Cuan's 15 def and WTA was nice against 15 attack Free Knights, so he covered one of Sigurd's flanks, but this was still gonna be rough. And that wasn't even counting Voltz into the equation!

...Oh, Alva's still alive! That's cool, but

HOLY SHIT HE'S TAKING ON ALL OF VOLTZ'S MERCS BY HIMSELF

The Free Knights took down his 14 or so HP, one at a time. By the time he had fallen, only Voltz was left unscathed and free to move, and he decided to attack Holyn anyway. Holyn refused to die and decided to fight back nicely instead. Next turn I mostly ignored the pretty much harmless Free Knights and focused on killing Voltz. Sigurd lobbed a javelin, Midir shot and countered back...and I wanted that Elite Ring for Lachesis. But she was out of range, so Jamka got the kill instead. Oh well. Levin and Sylvia were looting the villages nicely, and Dew was about to join them; hopefully he could give Hazelby enough cash to buy that goddamn Magic Ring. Fin bagged Macbeth with the help of Cuan, Sigurd and Lex. Those four are easily the core of the team, maybe with Midir as well for good cavalry 2-range, or Jamka for excellent foot 2-range. Then the dudes to the east turned against me and Sylvia fell asleep, and that's where I'm up to!

CHARACTER SUMMATION

SIGURD THE MANLY

Stuff: The Sword of Manliness (Steel), Iron Lance, Javelin, Skill Ring.

God on a horse. Axemen tremble at the thought of his name. He's mid-10s and blatantly overpowered. Really damn good. He has a Skill Ring, because noone else needs it that can actually afford it.

CUAN THE HUNTER SLAUGHTERER

Stuff: Steel Lance, Javelin

Second or third-best unit. Used to be restricted to Javelin chipping and slaughtering Hunters...but in an era of armour and cavalry, he need not restrain himself further. Not that fast, but doesn't need to be.

ALEC THE UNDEREQUIPPED

Stuff: Slim Sword, Iron Sword, Iron Lance

Excellent unit with rubbish equipment. Would benefit most from a Str Ring or Steel Sword or something. Desperately needs something. A solid unit, overall.

NOISH THE LUCKSINGER

Stuff: Steel Sword

Mediocre unit with good equipment. Distinctly average in every respect. Doesn't double without being doubled (thanks, Charge). Is pretty much just a boosted generic. You get the impression he'd make a suitable level 2 or 3 arena opponent.

ARDAN THE BEARTRAP

Stuff: Iron Sword

He used to complain about being the guard. Now he's the bait. Does...not awful damage, but now that the period of rubbish axemen and mediocre archers is past, his golden age (well, Chrome age, maybe) is long past. And yeah...Iron Sword.

MIDIR THE DESPERATE

Stuff: Iron Bow, Steel Bow, Return Trinket

Used to be good with Iron, but with the Steel he's excellent. It's just that Jamka is ... let's put it bluntly, better at everything except moving on flat terrain.

ETHLIN THE AMBULANCE

Stuff: Live, Slim Sword, Return Staff, Light Sword.

Don't bother fighting (although maybe she's good with the lightsword). Heals and moves better than Lachesis, but doesn't heal as well as Aideen. Not much else to say.

FIN THE STABMASTER

Stuff: Hero Lance, Silver Lance (can't use yet), Steel Lance, Iron Lance, Speed Ring

Fourth or sometimes third best melee fighter. Because nobody else that needs the Speed Ring can actually afford it, he has around 18-19 speed.

DEW THE INEPT STUPID MILLSTONE WHO CAN'T FIGHT WORTH SHIT

Stuff: lol!Iron Sword.

He's an inept stupid millstone who can't fight worth shit.

AIDEEN THE XTREME HEALBOT

Stuff: Relive, Warp

Heals the best but moves the worst of my healbots, and can't actually fight. Not much else to say.

LACHESIS THE BALANCED AT INCOMPETENCE

Stuff: Thief Sword, Prayer Sword, Live

Worst healer, and can't actually fight much either. At least she moves marginally better than Aideen, but only just.

LEX THE TUXEDO'D

Stuff: Hero Axe, Iron Axe, Steel Axe, Kinbois' Hand

Great, overlevelled fighter. His honeymoon may be ending though; he's worryingly not that much better than my other troops despite his level advantage, and without the Hero Axe he wouldn't be that great at all.

DEIRDRE THE INSTANT ROMANTIC INTEREST

Stuff: Aura, Silence, that trinket with the healing thing

She's Aura'd two people so far and Silenced Sandima. Has done nothing else noteworthy. In fact, she's literally done NOTHING ELSE. Oh, I think she gave one of the healbots a staff of some sort.

JAMKA THE TRAITOR

Stuff: Killer Bow

Best 2-range on the team with a great array of skills perfectly suited to fighting something that can't fight back. Still kind of unnerved by how quickly he turned on his own troops...

AZEL THE HAZEL

Stuff: Fire, Thunder, hopefully a Magic Ring soon

Situationally better chip than Midir, but almost always worse than Jamka. And worse defence and move than either. Forgettable mostly, but sometimes indispensable.

AIRA THE INCONVENIENT

Stuff: Iron Sword

A mediocre, but not great fighter so far. Desperately needs a better weapon!

HOLYN THE BLOODDRINKER

Stuff: Iron, or possibly Steel Sword

A good, but not great fighter so far. Desperately needs a better weapon!

BEOWOLF THE EXTRA

Stuff: Steel Sword

Almost forgot about this guy, but I only just recruited him. Took out four or five mercs, which was nice.

Edited August 15, 2010 by Agent Dale Cooper

[AstraLunaSol]

You didn't get the Silver Sword huh?

You get it from Alvis in the Prologue.

Also, for Chapter 3, make Holyn or Lex talk to Ayra. (Depending on who you want to pair with her.)

[Thor Odinson]

Ayra should become GOD soon in the offense department. With her SKL growths, Meteor activation will be a lot higher. Shame she only has 6 move.

...Unless you got her STR screwed or something. Really badly.

Her two kids, though, starts off pretty godly.

Actually, when you get the chance, sell the SKL ring off to Ayra for even higher Meteor rates.

*shot for being a Swordmaster fanantic*

Edited August 15, 2010 by Luminescent Blade

[riariadne]

Best parings first time around assuming you wanna pair everyone are IMO:

MidirXAideen (Because it makes the kids great. JamkaXAideen is also good)

LexXAira (Elite, hero sword, win def, only drawback is no inheritance for Skasaher)

BeowulfXLachesis (People say Fin because it gives pursuit... so does Beo and he also gives sword inheritance. Plus Fin wants all the lances he can get so he can return and kick some ass 2nd gen)

AzelXSylvia (I'm so going to get flamed for this, but think about the fact that Leen won't be fighting much so who cares about str growth and Corple would like some magic and ths pairing is actually okay)

ClaudeXFury (Sety is a boss, this we know, so why the fuck does he need Levin as his dad? With this he can inherit Reserve aka Fortify and heal like he fights: awesome)

LevinXTiltyu (Gives you Holsety for like all of secind gen on a guy who can use a horse. Only other thing required is the pursuit ring, and you have someone who can pretty much solo 2nd gen excluding some bosses)

DewXBriggid (Because knowing you probably don't give a crap about Patty and want Faval to be kickass, this gives him the best speed growth, and his HP growth is crazy enough. Plus, Ichival's 40 might is epic and he doesn't have any str problems ever. Unless you're sending him up vs. Julius)

Edited August 15, 2010 by Lightning

[Ansem]

This is the most awesome LP i ever read.

[Parrhesia]

Aideen's fond of Azel, but Jamka's fond of Aideen, so I intend JamkaXAideen (Midir outruns and Aideen's only 'on his mind', so fuck that) and DewXBriggid because fuck Dew. Don't shout at me, but SylviaXLevin is looking likely after they spent the last half of Chapter Two hugging each other on the way from Evans to my entire army (they never actually caught up). BeoXLachesis and HolAira are my other plans.

REST OF CHAPTER TWO

"Don't you think Eltshen and Lachesis are a little too close for siblings? Tee hee, I love to gossip!"

-some villager

Dew, Levin, and eventually Sylvia (after recovering from sleep, got the last village and...fell asleep again) finished raiding the villages. Y'know, I'm sure the bandits could get more money a lot quicker if they walked in and warned the villagers about incoming bandits. You can't get 5k from burning shit down. And then Fury moved thankfully extremely slowly towards Evans. Not to worry, Midir has a Rescue thing that used to belong to Phillip. He is so cool. Now I'll just move Sigurd down and-

Wait. I don't think Fury will listen to someone who she believes decapitated the prince she just came all this way to retrieve.

The prince she just came all this way to retrieve has barely cleared the woods.

Fffffff

Ethlin charges north, Rescue staff in hand. The Sword of Manliness is no longer as devastating as before; not next to Fin's lance, Lex's axe and to a lesser extent Jamka's bow, anyway. But the slowly oncoming reinforcements and the ugly square-faced guy leading them are a piece of cake. And oh shit this generic portrait guy has a lot of dudes. "Nothin' better than dyin' for the motherland." I wish I could recruit him.

Dew is rescued for XP because he's rubbish. Then Levin, but he's on ten hitpoints. Midir has 13 Defence by now, though, and only takes 7 damage from Fury Squadders that is regenerated the next turn. In order to gain HP, Levin goes into the arena. THis is counterproductive, you may say? Bah! I know full well of the regenerative powers of 2-shotting a random axefighter. Midir shoots down two pegs before Fury gets recruited, and a good time was had by all.

Goddamn ballistae. Oh well, Zyne is brought down at 2-range, to conveniently not enough health for any non-Fin character to oneshot him. Alec really needed that levelup, but by the same token Latchkey really needed Jamka's Elite Ring, but Jamka, being the traitor he is, is keeping that particular piece of dope gangsta bling-bling for now. Fo shizzle. Anyway, Fin (who is essentially turning into my looter of choice) now has a Slayer~ and lobs Clement's Sleep Staff into the convoy. That's quite a throw to Mackily Castle, but there's still Aideen RIGHT THERE. Fuck you, Fin. Anyway, with his newfound instablicking properties, he manages to clear the arena. Because I had time to kill. Beo gets to the lanceknight and a couple others advance further too.

King Shagbasket don't look so tough when he only has six guys guarding his royal 15-Def ass, and half of them have negative 29 Attack Speed. And one defence. Alec gets a much needed kill and Noish gets a much-expected failure to Charge. Sigurd takes the castle as Sylvia becomes rather fond of Levin. This is probably a bad pairing. Meh, it makes sense from a storyline perspective. All of my pairings make sense from a storyline perspective, in fact, apart from DewXBri-no, even then they're both blonde thieves. I think it's Cuan who gets the kill eventually.

CHAPTER THREE BEGINNING

"The way you fight, you could use a couple more swords"

-Holyn, who really needs a better sword than Slim.

Okay, there is a lot of switching around of weapons here. Sigurd sells the Sword of Manliness to Alec and gets a Silver Sword. Cuan gets a Silver Lance, and Fin keeps his Silver because nobody besides Cuan can actually use Silvers, and he'll promote soon anyway. Lex gets a superfluous Silver Axe, Hazelnut gets Elfire (I've given up on him Pursuing anything ever besides -18 AS brigands) and the Silver Bow goes to Jamka, who sells his Killer to Midir. Aira has a Steel that I don't know will be replaced in three turns, so Holyn gets a Slim from Alec. That Slim Sword has been through Sigurd, Alec and Holyn;Sigurd didn't want it, Alec wasn't helped enough by it but I'm hoping Holyn will be badass with it. Aideen doesn't repair her Relive because I forgot about her, but remembered everyone else. Fin, Lex and Jamka are all late 10s, as is I believe Holyn. Ardan is level 7 and Noish is 7-9. Alec isn't doing too well either. Aideen...who cares, really. Ethlin is somewhere. Latchkey is disappointingly low, but at least she got the combat boost conversation and fights better than Noish. 'Sides...she heals.

Up to chapter three. Aira is about to get her Hero Sword for the third time, but I keep screwing up placements when it comes to running away from armours and archknights. I have something better in mind now though...

[AstraLunaSol]

[spoiler=LevinXFury help]In chapter 4, Fury and Levin have a convo that makes them insta-lovers, so if you want to pair them, keep Sylvia AWAY until then.

Edited August 16, 2010 by Michalis

[Thor Odinson]

YEAH HOLYNxAYRA

Lex should get paired with someone, though. You don't want to waste Elite and Neir blood.

Make sure you get Dew to pass a two-range sword to Patty, and Jamka to pass the Pursuit ring to Lester if you got it, since Jamka has it as a class skill and not a personal skill.

If you didn't... well, there's the Hero bow.

[spoiler=regarding Levin's pairs, storyline-wise]

LevinFury is the canon pairing, as Sety had Holsety in Thracia 776.

Edited August 16, 2010 by Luminescent Blade

[BEST TRYNDAMERE PLAYER]

[spoiler=Levin pairing]The best Levin pairing is LevinxTitlyu, Holsety and motherfucking Wrath and at level 20 Arthur even gets a horse. Just give Arthur a Pursuit Ring and he rapes

[Thor Odinson]

The only problem with LevinxTiltyu, as awesome as a pairing as it is, is that it happens much slower than LevinFury or LevinSylvia (please don't do this unless you want to levelgrind the hell out of Corple with Elite Ring and Warp. It's masochism), and it might not be as viable for a first time player.

[BEST TRYNDAMERE PLAYER]

I will agree that LevinxTiltyu can be a hard pairing to get seeing as you literally need to glue them together for the rest of the first gen to get a shot at pairing them up due to Tiltyu's late jointime and the fact that they get no convos to increase relationship points. Speaking of Sylvia the best thing to do for her is to just keep her single and if she accidentally pairs with somebody kill her off when you're close to finishing the first generation. The substitute dancer has Charisma and the substitute cleric can get a Berserk Staff whereas Leen will never get Charisma no matter who her parents are and Corple will never get the Berserk Staff.

Edited August 16, 2010 by Joey

[Parrhesia]

The only problem with LevinxTiltyu, as awesome as a pairing as it is, is that it happens much slower than LevinFury or LevinSylvia (please don't do this unless you want to levelgrind the hell out of Corple with Elite Ring and Warp. It's masochism), and it might not be as viable for a first time player.

I very vaguely knew that Corpul joined late and could use magic...but I figured, with Holsety he would be able to slaughter the universe. Oh well, Levury is likely gonna be much easier then...I'm terrible with supports and thus will be tempted to go for the path of least resistance...

I will agree that LevinxTiltyu can be a hard pairing to get seeing as you literally need to glue them together for the rest of the first gen to get a shot at pairing them up due to Tiltyu's late jointime and the fact that they get no convos to increase relationship points. Speaking of Sylvia the best thing to do for her is to just keep her single and if she accidentally pairs with somebody kill her off when you're close to finishing the first generation. The substitute dancer has Charisma and the substitute cleric can get a Berserk Staff whereas Leen will never get Charisma no matter who her parents are and Corple will never get the Berserk Staff.

Sylvia being single? Tempting; means I don't have to bother with Ardan. Right now his 16 Strength means he can almost 2HKO situationally and his 14 Defence is pretty high, but realistically he's rubbish.

Oh, and the pirates talking about how Briggid was only boss because she thought she was the captain's daughter or something made me laugh. That big ol' glowing magic bow that decapitates people with a chopstick prob'ly helps subdue would-be mutineers pretty nicely, I think.

Any hints for salvaging Lachesis? She's badly behind, and although I got the conversation that gives her better combat stats she's pretty rubbish. Next chapter, when Jamka promotes, I'll give her the Elite Ring and some kind of effective, or possibly magic weapon so she can actually do more than badly healbot.

Edited August 16, 2010 by Agent Dale Cooper

[BEST TRYNDAMERE PLAYER]

Any hints for salvaging Lachesis? She's badly behind, and although I got the conversation that gives her better combat stats she's pretty rubbish. Next chapter, when Jamka promotes, I'll give her the Elite Ring and some kind of effective, or possibly magic weapon so she can actually do more than badly healbot.

Errrr, I'd say just toss her an Elite Ring and have her be in charge of Return Staff duty. Return Staffing will come in very handy in chapters 3 and 4 and gives quite a bit of xp anyways.

[Parrhesia]

Errrr, I'd say just toss her an Elite Ring and have her be in charge of Return Staff duty. Return Staffing will come in very handy in chapters 3 and 4 and gives quite a bit of xp anyways.

Next chapter, then. Screw doubling back to sell things at the castle.

[Parrhesia]

Speaking of this chapter, I finished the greater part of it just then.

MIDDLE PART OF CHAPTER THREE

"''''''''''"

-What Tailto may as well have been saying. Seriously, did she finish a single word ending with 'ing'? Oh well.

Sigurd, who is worryingly stopping getting much experience, killed everything with the help of Slayer!Fin, and the other regulars. The armours trudged towards Ardan in his fort, so Midir moved off that way to distract and hopefully kill a couple of them as Beowolf moved northwest to the obscure village. Lachesis' sexual appetites can wait for now, Beo got some heroing to do! Lex ran off after him when I noticed the Captain leading a squad of Lanceknights towards him. Lex is a cool guy, he can deal with it. The bulk of my core main primary central first force (e.g., everyone else) barrelled upwards and eradicated everything. Well, not Fury, who is arguably worse than Alec (nowhere near as bad as Noish or Ardan though). Anyway, my natural hatred for peg knights shining bright as ever, ... ... ... I can't remember what happened next.

Let's fast forward a little...yeah. Midir has picked off a couple armours, used his Return thing, and Cuan was returned by Ethlin for good measure. The bottleneck in front of Jakey Boy was picked apart systematically. Aira got the kill, but she had to dodge the trifecta of ballistae to live. Sigurd took the fort and the armours (and the surviving mages; only one had made it out of the forest, and Alec had introduced him to the Sword of Manliness). Alec was going to get the village which I was unaware had the +3 Strength. Had he gotten that, he would have been, if not a powerhouse, a reliable workhorse. But I decided to give him a LongArch kill instead, so Beo got the strength. I slammed my face into the table.

"Eltoshen, you're stupid and I hate you."

"Cool."

"Fight that dude."

"But-"

"Fight that dude."

"...'Kay."

Eltoshen is such a div. Him and his knights were soooooooo hot when they were saving my ass as Evans, but now they can fuck themselves. Fucking...decaf drinkers. With their mohawks, and imitation swords of manliness.

Anyway, while Cuan and Midir were daahn saahth, Cuan was javelin bait, and narrowly avoided being attacked. The next turn they ran away more and Cuan caught a javelin in the face. Midir laughed at him, but Cuan glared at him and he shot some dude and bolted. Cuan followed suit, and I had a rather lovely line of dudes going up against the decaf slurping cunts. _{Hate those fucking Cross Knights}

I'd love to say my plan went to plan. However a couple mohawked psychos decided they could probably bag an Ardan. Midir sighed and used his Return again. Meanwhile, the Angry Decaf Bastards had slammed into my wall and were mostly on the brink of death. I pulled off a few fancy maneouvres to get Lachesis to talk to Eltoshen. Well, actually I was gonna fight him, 38 Skill with Critical and all, but then I realised that Jamka had 33 hit on him, so fuck that. He wouldn't hit a sister he probably was sleeping with on the side, right? Well, I took no chances, and Latchkey talked to him neatly on the same turn I exterminated all of the decaf knights who weren't trying to kill Ardan. "They'll listen to the commander of the Cross Knights!" she said to his likely incestuous bro, looking aside to Alec. Alec was attempting to hide the bloodsplattered Sword of Manliness behind his back, while smiling awkwardly amongst the bloodied corpses.

Anyway, Eltoshen got his plot resolved with a vengeance, the simple-minded easily-led moron. Oh well. The Cross Knights daaahn saahth refused to run for it, though. They discovered a wild Midir, who had been interrupted while doing his hair for the coming battle by Ardan's muffled screams. He grabbed Jamka's Killer Bow and ruthlessly killed all three and moved north, because he's badass.

Next up; the king and his boy, who looks remarkably like that other bloke last chapter.

[Parrhesia]

I hate tripleposting, but it's a project thread, I guess. If a rather poorly-kept one.

REST OF CHAPTER THREE

Waited around for the Wyverns to attack, which was...probably a mistake, in hindsight. As they attacked a prepared force, they were torn to pieces. A pirate made it to the very NW village, which pissed me off; Fury was physically unable to move past the shoreline, but I don't think she could've made it anyway. Everyone swarmed to kill Shagaal, who had left only rather pathetic defences. He should have ran further. Midir critted instead of chipped, which apart from meaning Fin wasn't gonna hit level 20 (which wouldn't matter soon enough anyway) meant that Midir cemented his position as being manlier than Noish, and a vastly better fighter. And Sigurd seizes, and oh shit.

Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit.

Well, them pirates sure caught me with my pants down, eh. Sure they'll all have like 0 Skill and Iron Axes like in the prologue again and fuck they have Steels and the Swordfighters have something like 70% hit.

Next turn Claude joined with the Valkyrie Staff. I put two and two together, and Briggid bit the dust. She took a while, conveniently, long enough for me to warp my best fighters to the new front line. Jamka, Holyn, Aira, Cuan, Ethlin, Sigurd and Sylvia, in approximately that order...but I think if Sigurd had been first he MAY have been able to save Briggid. After Warping everyone, Aideen walked down to the home castle, and I was pleased to note she was now officially paired with Jamka. Fuck yes. But before being warped, Ethlin handed over the Gae Bolg, which I immediately renamed the THRACIA FUCK YEAH lance.

Sigurd was angry. So angry he killed something like twenty pirates. Twenty pirates. That's four fives. And that's...awesome. He wasn't getting much experience now, though, being around level 22. Jamka had gotten the kill on Dozarl's pimp and thus had a sexy Leg Ring. First he stole the Elite Ring which Lachesis really needed and now the Leg Ring which...pretty much any other foot unit needed. At least I'll now have ... an Archknight with +3 move and awesome bows and stats. ...Actually, maybe Jamka with that ring ain't so bad after all.

With Fury's help, Team Claude barely made it out intact, minus a couple Reserve uses. I was probably meant to hold him back, but I needed his staff for Briggid. Holyn and Ayra fell in love and started carving Dozarl's bouncers to bits (I should mention, as Midir had killed a rather ugly and stupid nobleman, he'd taken his sword for a trophy. Holyn had bought the Silver Blade off him while waiting for the wyverns to attack). Ayra got the kill on enemy phase, and took the power ring...gods, anyone with the suffix -fighter was turning out godly this playthrough. Take notes, Alec! Alec ain't actually doing that badly in hindsight...he's just a slightly worse version of Midir with a far worse weapon (The Sword of Manliness is looking rather dated, and that saddens me). Noish, though... Anyway, Ethlin returned Claude, who resurrected Briggid. Aideen then gave her THE BOW OF STICKS. Fuck yes. Sigurd seizes.

*Pans down*

*sees two Antagonists with like fifty promoted cavalry*

OH SHIT DON'T KILL BRIGGID CHRIST MAN SHE JUST DIED LIKE FIVE TURNS AGO

Oh, the magic peg knights are gonna rescue Sigurd, and ... Aideen/Ardan/Azel/Briggid/Claude are like seven days travel away and are outran...ahh fuck it. They survived, somehow, and that's cool.

CHAPTER FOUR BEGINNING

I swear those Specialist Magi are kung fu masters. Look at them arms. It's like "FUCK MAGIC GONNA JUST CHOP YO HEAD OFF WIT' THIS HAND O' MINE". Or something. I dunno. Maybe being in the snows of Silesia makes you the kind of guy who eats only steak and drinks V8 Smoothies as 'a light pick-me-up'. And...aw, fuck, Cuan, that's really too bad, and...Ethlin, that's kind of disappointing and FIN NO WAIT I WAS GONNA PROMOTE YOU LIKE RIGHT NOW I MEAN SHIT MAN oh well. I hope they return, I wanna Gae BolgTHRACIA FUCK YEAH lance some bitches in the face. And Fury has something to not tell Levin. Knowing Levin, Fury's reluctance and an...'insta-love' conversation, I predict pregnancy. Levin, you playa.

Well, only really had time to give Jamka the Brave Bow and go through the arena. Aideen and Jamka promoted first off, and Jamka unloaded all 40k bucks onto completely broke Aideen. Aideen stole Azel's Magic Ring and Thunder, and in hindsight should have taken Fire instead for delicious WTA...of course, if I'm using magic to take out the squishy kung fu dudes, I'm doin' it wrong. Did you know that the random neutral Wind Mage has one leadership star?

Alec killed the mage and died to either the Pally or the Forest Knight. Noish gave up against the Pally when I remembered how crap he was. Sigurd, predictably, cleared the lot. Pirate Jesus, predictably, cleared the lot. Newly promoted Jamka, predictably, cleared the lot. I'm sure Dukeknight Fin will OH YEAH FUCK YOU CUAN AND YOUR OTHER COMMITMENTS. Ardan vs. Windmage with Elwind, yeah no. Beo, surprisingly, fell at the first stage. Lachesis with her Earth Sword slaughterage beat up the first two, or poss. three, but gave up afterwards, intact. Holyn fell to the Herolance Peg, but Ayra managed to smite it and the two guys after it before not challenging the already humiliated VolcaBaron. Why is there a powerful mage/nobility in some arena getting killed by random mercs? Fury was lookin' good against the Forest Knight at number three before WHAT IS THIS she got hit, then hit by continue, both at <30%. Levin was also continued, but awesomely managed to dodge...once. Then he got hit consecutively by the Hero Peg, at 35%. It's not just Alec, this game just hates the green-haired stepchildren. Aideen died to the Forest Knight. Sylvia and Dew, like Ardan, didn't fight. Azel barely killed the first mage, which was kind of sad. He then gave up. Tailto barely killed the first mage as well, but at least she had WTD as an excuse. Neither bothered against the next foe. Think that's everyone. Claude walked out and Reserved everyone, watched Sylvia's hips, felt better, and Reserved everyone again for the rest of their HP. That's pretty much where I'm up to now, in fact.

I just realised that Tailto is minor Tordo. Is every single descendant of these dudes in our party? Surely some generic Swordfighter is like Minor Ulir or something from like eighteen generations back.

Gonna go for SylviaXNobody, AzelXTailto, and...wondering whether LeXBriggid for schmexy Elite on ... Patty, or AlecXBriggid because I like Alec, and Nihil, and Skill growth. Fuck Dew. THE CHAPTER NUMBER IS HIGHER THAN HIS STRENGTH. And I don't know about you, but 40RKOing a guy many, many plot deaths ago didn't really cut it then, and now...Briggid would never fall for Dew, think about it that way. And yeah, no plot spoilers. Or you will be killed.

[Thor Odinson]

Did you make Aideen talk to Briggid in C3?

If you didn't, congratulations, you missed the Ichival for the rest of the game. ;____;

[Dr. Tarrasque]

Go for Lex x Briggid.

[Parrhesia]

Did you make Aideen talk to Briggid in C3?

If you didn't, congratulations, you missed the Ichival for the rest of the game. ;____;

Anyway, Ethlin returned Claude, who resurrected Briggid. Aideen then gave her THE BOW OF STICKS. Fuck yes. Sigurd seizes.

Go for Lex x Briggid.

Arright, I shall. Poor Alec, who is not only cursed but will not get to contribute his genetic material to the next generation...

BTW I'm fairly certain Jamka is Str-blessed, somewhat. Level 22-23ish with 27 Strength, and only around 17 Skill (although, this may well be blessed...) and 21 Spd.

[Thor Odinson]

Ah sorry about that. I missed it. >_____< See what I mean about my poor reading skills?

Well, you could go AlecSylvia for a Dancer that won't get WrathMeteo-blicked in endgame... ohwait, this is not Skasaher Kills Things. Narga exists. Charisma is better. NVM.

Edited August 17, 2010 by Luminescent Blade