(FE7) Hector Normal Mode Draft Tournament

[chococoke]

I don't know exactly what a good baseline is for NM turncounts, but I gotta say you guys have definitely been doing well on those compared to the HM turncounts I've seen in the past.

Also, it does seem to be true, more people finish NM drafts more quickly. Fair enough. :o

This is true. My HNM run was at ~7 hours at chapter 29. HHM run at chapter 29? 13+ hours. And about 2 months worth of frustration.

[Paperblade]

Marcus: His speed faltered a little later on, but by then it didn't matter. He carried the earlygame on his shoulders along with Hector and continued to serve important functions throughout the entire game, both combat and utility. It may very well be a good idea to ban him in later (Normal Mode) drafts.

I'm going to have to agree with this. You really don't need a very good early game team with Marcus, since he+Hector can solo the early game while whoever you have just picks off mooks for EXP (they give a lot on NM).

And by early game I mean "Chapters 11 through 24"

So it's more like the three fifths, and then you have 3 chapters that are defend of the remaining 9.

[Radiant Dragon]

I'm going to have to agree with this. You really don't need a very good early game team with Marcus, since he+Hector can solo the early game while whoever you have just picks off mooks for EXP (they give a lot on NM).

And by early game I mean "Chapters 11 through 24"

So it's more like the three fifths, and then you have 3 chapters that are defend of the remaining 9.

Exactly; even after Chapter 24 all the way to the Final Chapter he was still able to take on hoards of enemies. Enemies suck in this game.

Congrats on finishing Silvercrow (and beating me again...). And Chococoke, maybe it's just me, but a draft where a bunch of people finish (whether you win or lose) is funner than a draft where no one finishes.

[chococoke]

32

Everyone charges through the center, effin' shit up while they go. Dorky and Guy head straight north with Merlinus to get some cheap kills and stuff. Everything is good and all, everyone has a good time. Canas does his usual bosskilling thing with Luna, and Hector seizes on turn 10 once everyone gets a little extra fill of experience. Oh, and Vaida died ferrying Canas. RIP.

10 turns, 187 total

Final (Part 1)

This seems kind of popular, so I'll just list how everyone dies :D

Generic Snipers: One killed by Uhai, the other by Guy.

Uhai: Usual lure and murder, thanks to brave axe Dorcas and Uhai.

Sage: Athos Luna

Druid:

Kenneth: Athos Luna (after he fucking critted with Luce! :o)

Brendan:

Warrior:

Darin:

General:

Ursula: Luna crit, courtesy of Canas.

Jerme: Luna crit, courtesy of Canas.

Lloyd:

Linus:

Nergal:

Okay nevermind, that was my 2nd attempt and Athos was killed by the Druid. First attempt, Lyn got sniped by the bolting Sage. I'll finish this shit later.

Edited November 12, 2010 by Chococoke

[Radiant Dragon]

Generic Snipers: One killed by Uhai, the other by Guy.

Uhai: Usual lure and murder, thanks to brave axe Dorcas and Uhai.

I assume you mean Rath?

[chococoke]

I assume you mean Rath?

No, I berserked him!

Yes -_-

[chococoke]

Time to actually get this done.

Final (Part 1)

HOW EVERYONE DIED!

Snipers: Rath and Guy, again.

Uhai: Dorcas brave axe'd him twice, then Hector finished with the Wolf Beil.

Sage: Athos LUNA

Druid: Athos LUNA

Kenneth: Athos DOUBLE LUNA

Warrior: Rath ORKO'd him with the Rienfleche.

Brendan: Ain hit him once with the axereaver, traded it to Marcus, who hit him too. Athos finished him with a bolting blast.

Darin: Had to gangbang him with a bunch of people, he was annoying. Dorcas, Hector, Sain, and Marcus all had a shot, and he finally went down to an Armads hit.

General: Wolf Beil'd

Ursula: Hit with Luna twice, and also once by an Athos bolting.

Jerme: Luna crit

Lloyd: Oswin hit him twice with the swordslayer

Linus: Athos hit him with bolting, Guy critted him with the Regal Blade

Nergal: Athos doubled him with Luna, then Oswin landed 3 straight brave lance shots

6 turns (I think,) 193 total

Final (Part 2)

Canas attacked on turn 1 with Luna, and was Physic'd by Athos. I made sure to MOVE FUCKING ELIWOOD AND LYN THIS TIME SO THEY DON'T GET SNIPED. He did 22 damage both turns, not crit, leaving the dragon with 76 health. I needed some AWFUL hit rates to hit, (as low as Hector's 62 displayed...) But Oswin with Rex Hasta, Athos with LUna, and Hector with Armads all hit him, and Canas with Luna delivered the final blow.

2 turns, 195 total. Damn, that was an awful run. I'll post character stats/musings at a later time.

[chococoke]

Ranks: A Tactics, B Survival, D Funds, F EXP, A Combat.

Hector

Great Lord   7.14  44  23  14  16  06  23  19   // B 121  W 62

Oh, Hector. You gained speed so quickly at first, and then you became as you usually are for me: slow as BALLSACK. Axes were nice, and the Wolf Beil often came in handy against annoying enemies. Being incredibly Def blessed was nice, though, and I appreciate that much at least.

Sain

Paladin   13.87  56  23  13  18  15  17  05  // B 132  W 64

Dear Sain: Fuck you. I drafted him with my first set of picks because I was excited about his good bases, decent growths, and awesome movement and eventual WTC. Alas, you did nothing to help me. You were supposed to obsolete Marcus rather quickly, yet you barely managed to do that. Incredibly skill screwed, and he was supposed to cap Strength at level 9. Thanks for nothing, Sain. I hate you.

Marcus

Paladin   20.00  42  21  21  19  17  13  12  // B 173  W 124

As with Radiant, I had never used Marcus in a normal mode run. He obviously helped a shit load at the beginning, and had a solid middle and endgame thanks to his RNG blessed speed that he grew for me. Whilst he was pretty useless in the final chapter, he helped a little bit, and made the beginning bearable, though I believe in future normal mode runs he should be free only in the chapters that he's forced in, or maybe until after Talons Alight.

Canas

Druid   20.00  49  22  22  20  14  11  21  // B 108  W 76

Below average in every stat, but he was useful. I needed a magic user, and I wasn't aware at the time who was available to me, but I knew that once he was promoted and gained 4 AS, he would become hella useful. And that was how it was, too. Luna was absolutely awesome, with its high Crit and negating resistance, allowing him to become a reliable bosskiller, especially useful in the final chapter and the chapter before the last one, killing Limstella, Ursula, Jerme, and the Dragon.

Oswin

General   18.77  59  23  21  22  13  30  13  // B 152  W 92

What strange stats, Oswin. What he lacked in STR (-3) he MORE than made up for in SPD (+6!) Oswin was a pretty good choice, but if I were to do another draft run I might not pick him. 4 move is just hellaciously bad, which is why I gave him the boots after he promoted and he absolutely fucked shit up. Pretty useful once he got to 7 movement, but otherwise I would skip him, he's too slow movement wise.

Dorcas

Warrior   17.86  60  26  12  13  20  11  09  // B 149  W 91

He did alright. He stopped proccing speed, which I guess I should've expected given his awful growth, but I wasn't about to frustrate myself by using Bartre. He hit once, and usually hit hard. Had him use the hammer, was pretty useful for murdering knights. Overall not bad.

Guy

Swordmaster   16.03  53  16  23  30  18  16  10  // B 115  W 70

Guy. Where to begin. He didn't really have a huge impact. Only being able to ORKO enemies with a silver sword meant he was pretty expensive, but he was alright when he could get a lucky critical hit in. I might actually have chosen Legault given another chance to choose between the two, but oh well.

Rath

Nomad Trooper   17.66  50  20  22  23  13  15  18  // B 135  W 68

Rath... well, Rath has a rough start. He could only ORKO enemies at first with a brave bow, despite being able to double practically everything. I had to give him Afa's Drops because he was growing so damn slowly at first. His STR and SPD were both unfortunate by endgame, and he kind of made me sad. This was the first time I had ever used him though, and I pretty much discovered why. Oh well. I will admit, he was pretty dope with the Rienfleche in the final chapter.

Wallace

General   Awful shit  // B ??  W ??

Wallace blows, and was not worth giving up turns in FFO to reach. Sorry Wallace.

Vaida

 Basically bases // B15  W8 

Vaida is officially the worst flyer in all of Fire Emblem. Especially in terms of rescuing. Her 12 constitution was cool, except it meant she had a whopping 8 rescue. She would've been benched for the final chapter anyway, so letting her die was a non-issue for me.

AND that's that. I'll take my 3rd place. Well done to Radiant and Crow for the awesome turncounts, I am ashamed. I made 2 mistakes when drafting though that really killed me. And those were a) Not drafting someone who can use staves (for warp) and b) not drafting a (good) flyer. Either of those would have helped my turncounts VERY much, but alas, hindsight is 20/20.

[Silvercrow]

Grats on finishing. You did a pretty good job to be honest!

I'd be interested to see what you could've done with, say, Serra instead of Canas and Heath instead of Vaida.

[chococoke]

True that, but Serra was gone immediately as expected, and I passed on all the fliers. I wish I hadn't picked 5th, it gets me into trouble. I should've drafted Florina or Fiora in place of Sain, actually. I really underestimated flier utility, as I tend to do pretty often.

[Paperblade]

Grats on finishing. You did a pretty good job to be honest!

I'd be interested to see what you could've done with, say, Serra instead of Canas and Heath instead of Vaida.

From my experience (I'm getting murdered in the FE8 Draft because I picked Moulder over, like, Garcia), most early game healers are pretty bad in drafts since they gain EXP slower than other early game units, and half the time getting them to heal puts them in range of enemies which further slows you down. So you really need to promote them at like, level 10, but their stats are just so far behind... Their main use is Warp, but IMO it's better to early promote a dude like Erk or Lucius (especially Lucius, C Staves ftw) and just staff spam.

Then again, Canas also requires you to give up turns and he's not exactly spectacular.

Edited November 14, 2010 by Paperblade

[Silvercrow]

From my experience (I'm getting murdered in the FE8 Draft because I picked Moulder over, like, Garcia), most early game healers are pretty bad in drafts since they gain EXP slower than other early game units, and half the time getting them to heal puts them in range of enemies which further slows you down. So you really need to promote them at like, level 10, but their stats are just so far behind... Their main use is Warp, but IMO it's better to early promote a dude like Erk or Lucius (especially Lucius, C Staves ftw) and just staff spam.

Then again, Canas also requires you to give up turns and he's not exactly spectacular.

My experience says the total opposite. Natasha and Saul both paid off immensely in the other drafts I've played in.

Granted, it depends on the game significantly (staffers aren't such a big deal in FE8 as long as you get someone ready for Warp, for which you have plenty of time), but I would probably have chosen Priscilla over Pent in this draft.

I think it's more accurate to say that having early-game units is just a necessity, period, even if they're Garcia or Bartre or WOLT.

Canas brings to the table a wonderful dedicated boss killer in the form of Luna, but it's only much more useful than other characters in a handful of chapters unfortunately.

Edited November 14, 2010 by Silvercrow

[Radiant Dragon]

The usefulness of early healers definitely depends on the game. If I had had one of the early healers in the FE 6 draft, I would've beaten Silvercrow.

[chococoke]

Yeah, honestly I'm not certain why Priscilla goes so high in every FE7 draft. Though to be honest, she's one of a few units that I've never used seriously (Rath was once included in this group.) Heck, my first few playthroughs I hated magic units and never used them.

[Silvercrow]

She's mounted and her stats end up comparable to Erk's once she promotes, but with a better staff rank.