Balcerzak's FE4 AAAA attempts

[SuperTroll Maxim Lapierre]

@Balcerzak's long post.

Lex can indeed be held back or left to just chipping in Chapters 4 and 5. I did Lex|Sylvia way back, and that's what I did to get them paired. Of course, I was slower then.

Up to Marpha, you're actually ahead of my efficiency run pace. But normalcy was restored with the 29 turn final count. ;)

[Balcerzak]

Chapter 2:

Chapter 2:

.

Prologue and Ch1 commentary videos can be found in the earlier sections of the Commentary playlist.

Turn 4: "Seize" Nodion.

Turn 9: Seize Heirhein.

Turn 17: Seize Anphony.

Turn 26: Seize McKily.

Turn 33: Seize Augusty.

Name: Arena Lv.XP MHP STR MAG SKL SPD LCK DEF RES Money Equip
Sigurd:   A★ 18.77 49 21  1 17 16  9 13  4 17100  (Skill Ring, Barrier Ring)
Noish:    A★ 16.03 42 15  1 12 11  8 13  0 38105
Alec:     A★ 15.63 40 16  1 13 17  5 10  1 43105  (Shield Ring)
Ardan:    A7  11.22 41 18  0  5  5  4 18  0 36795  (Pursuit Ring)
Azel:     A7  12.03 37  2 17  9 14  2  3  6 36985
Lex:      A★ 19.24 44 17  0 16 15 11 19  0 30295
Cuan:     A★ 19.11 51 26  1 16 14  8 21  4 40940
Fin:      A★ 11.95 39 14  0 13 15 15  9  1 40005
Ethlin:   A★ 29.99 44 22 10 22 24 11 20 11 10420  (Return Ring, Elite Ring)
Midir:    A★ 12.99 39 14  1  8 16  4  9  0 35400  (Speed Ring)
Aideen:   A1  18.20 37  7 16  8 13 23  2 10 39215  (Bargain Bracelet)
Dew:      A5  11.61 34  9  1 12 18 16  5  1     0
Aira:     A★ 12.79 37 13  0 22 21  4 11  1 35200
Jamka:    A★ 12.85 41 14  0 14 14  6 11  1 36065
Dierdre:  A★ 23.30 39  1 23 11 13 10  5 25 20430 (Magic Ring, Circlet)
Holyn:    A★ 15.46 43 16  0 19 19  1 12  1 27500
Lachesis: A★  9.12 32 13  8 11 15  7  9 10 23525 (Knight Ring)
Levin:    A★ 10.34 36  1 13 14 19  7  5 10 35440
Sylvia:   A7   5.40 32  3  0  4 12  7  1  8 43265
Beowulf:  A7  13.25 39 14  0 13 13  3 10  0 20965
Fury:     A★  9.12 33 13  1 12 18  7 10 10 23150

Turns: 73/399

XP: 220/1000

Also, note: I misspeak quite a bit. I forget to mention Fury's recruitment in the main objectives, I accidentally say "Strength" instead of "Speed" in one place, and other instances. I didn't care enough to go rerecord audio though.

I've already almost completed my redoing of Chapter 1, and you may be a little surprised about what I decide to do. Interested in watching?

Of course I'm interested, I'm anticipating it quite a bit, after the teasing.

Edited February 27, 2011 by Balcerzak

[SuperTroll Maxim Lapierre]

Mmm, mmm, mmm. Seeing Cuan with 26 strength makes me so happy.

Seeing those arena levels...man you must have a lot of time.

[Narga_Rocks]

Yes, because the +5% magic growth will totally help her, unlike Elwind and Tornado.

Eh, heh, heh, heh....yeah, I remembered Azel having A LOT more magic growth than he actually does. Darn, I guess Levin IS the better father, huh?

I wish people would check these things more.

Azel: 10 + 30

to daughters:

5 + 30

hello holy blood. +35 on Tinny.

Levin: 30

to daughters:

+15

That's a 20 growth difference, thank you very much. <_<

Not that I'm saying Azel!Tinny is absolutely better than Levin!Tinny. It's debatable, though, since Wind + Pursuit will likely do more damage (on average) than Elwind + Critical + Continue. Plus she gets Continue at promo anyway. And 20% extra magic is, what, 5 points in 25 levels? That's almost the difference between Tornado and Elwind. Though I'm not bothering to check about the whole cap thing. Don't really care all that much. Also, +10 hit on the lower rank weapons. Azel's skill is terrible, but even Azel!Tinny has a 70% skill growth. Levin!Tinny only has 80%. She'll never overcome the 10 hit deficit. And Azel!Tinny still has pursuit.

Obviously Levin!Arthur makes the pairing worth it, so none of that matters.

Rescue Staff. There are quite a lot of times when it can be put to good use by Rana in chapter 7 since Celice has a lot of backtracking to do:

-After Yied is captured. Rana can Rescue Celice, so he doesn't have to go through the desert.

-After Melgen is conquered, she can Rescue him again and get him closer to Darna.

-After Darna is conquered, she can Rescue Lynn allowing 4 units to get closer to Alster.

Only Claude!Rana has A staves before promo. Azel doesn't give her that. The earliest you can use the Rescue staff in gen2 in the case of Azel!Rana is Claude!Sety, assuming you paired Claude with Fury and gave Claude the rescue staff before the end of gen1.

[Balcerzak]

Only Claude!Rana has A staves before promo. Azel doesn't give her that. The earliest you can use the Rescue staff in gen2 in the case of Azel!Rana is Claude!Sety, assuming you paired Claude with Fury and gave Claude the rescue staff before the end of gen1.

Marthur has been advocating ClaudexEdin the whole time, and I believe AzelxForeverAlone.

[Narga_Rocks]

Marthur has been advocating ClaudexEdin the whole time, and I believe AzelxForeverAlone.

That helps. Somewhere along the way I thought others were talking about Azel with her. He never did though, yes. His first post mentioned Claude so oops.

[SuperTroll Maxim Lapierre]

Uhh, Narga, what do you mean by "+10 hit on the lower rank weapons"?

[Paperblade]

Uhh, Narga, what do you mean by "+10 hit on the lower rank weapons"?

C magic has 10 more hit than B Magic has 10 more hit than A magic.

He's saying Azel!Tinny can downgrade to Wind to pump up her hit and still have similar attack to Levin!Tinny.

Although I'm pretty sure that when you have a 70% Skill growth the hit thing doesn't actually matter

Edited February 28, 2011 by Paperblade

[Narga_Rocks]

C magic has 10 more hit than B Magic has 10 more hit than A magic.

He's saying Azel!Tinny can downgrade to Wind to pump up her hit and still have similar attack to Levin!Tinny.

Although I'm pretty sure that when you have a 70% Skill growth the hit thing doesn't actually matter

The cap isn't the greatest (24). That's only 118 hit with Tornado. It's minor anyway, since the key is pursuit and not the 4 to 8 extra hit she's getting (due to probably having a lower base skill and growth but more accurate weapons). It's just an added detail since I find missing annoying, and while 92 hit is nice, 98 hit is even better.

[SuperTroll Maxim Lapierre]

C magic has 10 more hit than B Magic has 10 more hit than A magic.

He's saying Azel!Tinny can downgrade to Wind to pump up her hit and still have similar attack to Levin!Tinny.

Although I'm pretty sure that when you have a 70% Skill growth the hit thing doesn't actually matter

Well, that wording made it sound like it was a bonus on top of the default values, but w/e.

Hit doesn't matter much for her because most enemies are turtles. Those that aren't, she ain't fighting unless the enemy is finished by the end of the turn, the other units can make a formation to protect her, etc.

[FionordeQuester]

I wish people would check these things more.

Azel: 10 + 30

to daughters:

5 + 30

hello holy blood. +35 on Tinny.

Levin: 30

to daughters:

+15

That's a 20 growth difference, thank you very much.

Not that I'm saying Azel!Tinny is absolutely better than Levin!Tinny. It's debatable, though, since Wind + Pursuit will likely do more damage (on average) than Elwind + Critical + Continue. Plus she gets Continue at promo anyway. And 20% extra magic is, what, 5 points in 25 levels? That's almost the difference between Tornado and Elwind. Though I'm not bothering to check about the whole cap thing. Don't really care all that much. Also, +10 hit on the lower rank weapons. Azel's skill is terrible, but even Azel!Tinny has a 70% skill growth. Levin!Tinny only has 80%. She'll never overcome the 10 hit deficit. And Azel!Tinny still has pursuit.

Obviously Levin!Arthur makes the pairing worth it, so none of that matters.

Oh...wait hold on, MINOR BLOOD Fala gives a 30% boost to magic? I thought that was only MAJOR BLOOD Fala that gives it. I thought Azel had major blood, and Tinny only got minor blood, therefore, a 15% boost to magic. Whoops, my mistake. And Tinny doesn't have Pursuit without Azel?

Well, that changes quite a bit for me then. I was still considering pairing Azel and Tiltyu just because they're an easier pairing and because the storyline clearly intended for their pairing, but now I'm definetly using them.

Yes, I know that Levin x Tiltyu is still probably better. And no, I don't care. I'm still doing the Azel x Tiltyu pairing anyways, just for the sake of story. I'm somewhat wishy washy that way.

Edited February 28, 2011 by FionordeQuester

[Marthur]

I wish people would check these things more.

Which I did. So I'll just go and blame The Complete.

[Mekkah]

Commentary is interesting, keep it up! Funny how you go "yeah I could have planned that better" every turn :P

[FionordeQuester]

Yo, Balcerzak, I've finally recorded all of Chapter 1. All I have to do now is add in the commentary, and this time, I'm going to try to make it great! So, after all of this, I'm going to be interested in what you think.

[Anouleth]

Oh...wait hold on, MINOR BLOOD Fala gives a 30% boost to magic? I thought that was only MAJOR BLOOD Fala that gives it. I thought Azel had major blood, and Tinny only got minor blood, therefore, a 15% boost to magic. Whoops, my mistake. And Tinny doesn't have Pursuit without Azel?

Major blood just doubles the bonuses. Minor Fala does indeed give +30%. Somewhat depressing to think that Azel only has a base 10% growth in magic, though.

Azel has minor Fala, not major.

Where would Tinny get pursuit from?

[FionordeQuester]

I dunno, I have a hard time telling which classes have Pursuit as a class skill and which ones don't.

[Anouleth]

I dunno, I have a hard time telling which classes have Pursuit as a class skill and which ones don't.

Look at the skill. Does it say 'Soldier' or 'Citizen'? Soldier skills are derived from the class (like Jamka's Pursuit) and Citizen skills are derived from the character (like Midayle's Pursuit).

[Paperblade]

I dunno, I have a hard time telling which classes have Pursuit as a class skill and which ones don't.

Bowfighter and promotions

Swordfighter and promotions

Master Knight

Dragonmaster

I think that's all

[Mekkah]

Thief Fighter. Well, and Dark Bishop.

[Balcerzak]

Good news, everybody!

Chapter 3 has been finished recording, now you're just waiting on the mixing and commentary phases. I feel really rather well with how things went, even if I failed to get Cuan to 30.00 (which I suspect is borderline impossible without significant levels of boss abuse).

In Ch4 news, Midir and Aideen are 5 turns of adjacent from being officially bound to each other, and Noish and Ayra are 9 away. Azel can actually clear the Arena and promote too! o_o I need to check if that makes his movement type better or worse for mountain crossing.

I'm holding off from playing the chapter for a bit, as I still need to figure out proper distribution of resources (including civilians). The fact that I have to have Claude glued to Fury tethers her back quite a bit, which will be unfortunate, to say the least. At least LevinxTiltyu, and HolynxBriggid share move. I guess I could maybe make up for it with a jealousy square in Ch5, but that feels a bit dicey...

Also, it seems I underestimated the social knights, and they probably didn't need any babying whatsoever. I guess I had a lingering bad impression from my first playthrough, where I never managed to get them to promotion level. They're really performing excellently here.

Full stats, breakdowns, etc. to be posted with the videos, though.

[Super Mecha Death Christ]

Balcerzak, is it ok for my friend to borrow some footage from your video? He's doing a retrospective and might need some footage of areas he doesn't have.

[Balcerzak]

Balcerzak, is it ok for my friend to borrow some footage from your video? He's doing a retrospective and might need some footage of areas he doesn't have.

I have no issues with this at all. I'd only ask you link me to his final product so I can take a look, because I'll be curious. But even that's not required. Share and share alike is my policy.

[Super Mecha Death Christ]

Oh, it'll definitely be linked and he'll give you credit if your footage is used. Don't worry, he's not going to make a big video series and keep it hidden from people.

In fact, here's a preview announcement.

http://blip.tv/file/4821778

Skip to the 30 second mark if the stuff in the beginning bores you. I taught him how to play Fire Emblem and he started with Thracia 776, that's why he used that in his sneak speak.

Edited March 3, 2011 by Super Mecha Death Christ

[FionordeQuester]

Yo, Balcerzak, three questions...

1) Should I show Arena battles when I post my videos? I cut them out of my new videos since I thought they were boring and was also tired of manipulating the level ups while recording, but, then I realized I could probably post a seperate video consisting of all of the Arena fights. What do you think of that?

2) Why is holding Fury back an issue? If you manage to promote her, you could simply have her spam the Return Staff for experience while everyone else is doing the fighting, right? I mean, as long as she's promoted by Chapter 5 (a fairly simple thing to do via Elite Ring and Arena), she could simply spam the Return staff while chilling with Claude right? It'd only take 29 turns at the most of her doing that ad nausium to hit Level 30, and BAM!, she's done.

3) I'm going to try to make a real effort to see how far I can improve my commentary as I post the Chapter 1 stuff today. Mind telling me what you think as well as the DARRRRRRRIIIIIIINNNNNNNGGGGGGG!!! strategy?

[Balcerzak]

Yo, Balcerzak, three questions...

1) Should I show Arena battles when I post my videos? I cut them out of my new videos since I thought they were boring and was also tired of manipulating the level ups while recording, but, then I realized I could probably post a seperate video consisting of all of the Arena fights. What do you think of that?

2) Why is holding Fury back an issue? If you manage to promote her, you could simply have her spam the Return Staff for experience while everyone else is doing the fighting, right? I mean, as long as she's promoted by Chapter 5 (a fairly simple thing to do via Elite Ring and Arena), she could simply spam the Return staff while chilling with Claude right? It'd only take 29 turns at the most of her doing that ad nausium to hit Level 30, and BAM!, she's done.

3) I'm going to try to make a real effort to see how far I can improve my commentary as I post the Chapter 1 stuff today. Mind telling me what you think as well as the DARRRRRRRIIIIIIINNNNNNNGGGGGGG!!! strategy?

1) I'm not necessarily the best arbiter on this, and that particular question is likely better suited for your own thread. I personally leave them in in my videos to preserve the uninterrupted flow of gameplay, and also to leave a permanent and reproducible record in case anyone were to be daft enough to try to copy my playthrough exactly (spoilers: this will never happen).

2) Holding Fury back isn't an issue in terms of her leveling, so much as she is perhaps the most efficient Bandit slayer and village saver ever, not to mention I think I'm going to want her to Thief Sword so she can buy the Defense and Power Rings to pass to Fee. Even without an Aid stat or the ability to Rescue units, fliers' ability to ignore terrain makes them incredibly useful. I guess your point about Return is also worth noting, and Fury definitely promoted in Chapter 4 base (the only people aren't promoted after Chapter 4 base are Dew, Tiltyu, and Levin, and I'm only holding off on Levin so he can Arena after obtaining Holsety). I was originally going to give Return to Master Knight Lachesis, but she could use Warp just as easily, and it's not like Aideen doesn't have staves left (though her Resistance won't make her immune to Sleep from the bishop, so I'm not sure if I can Restore farm...)

3) No problems there, I can comment. Speaking of updates, I'm currently uploading to Youtube. Chapter 3 will hit the next post in a matter of hours at worst.