FE8 Efficiency Playlog

[General Horace]

I'll try to recall the RNG abuse that was needed, I might miss something, but you'll see in the video.

- Saleh landing a Crit on Valter (~25%?)

- Seth landing a Crit plus another hit on Orson with a Killer Lance (Around 60 Displayed hit)

- Seth landing a Spear crit on Lyon (Ch. 17) (~17%x2)

- Seth landing one 7% crit on Lyon (final) in 4 attacks

Otherwise, it was pretty clean. Fortimiis didn't require any, Gerik Garm'd twice, Seth Audulma'd twice, and Myrhh finished.

[General Horace]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWG_9hVBRak

Chapters 1-8. I was too lazy to cut out the shopping and such, but most of these chapters are pretty trivial. Only difference from hard mode was chapter 4. Edited November 1, 2011 by General Horace

[eclipse]

I'm assuming that "crit" on Valter was after you jacked his Rune?

EDIT: I'm an idiot. Wrong boss.

Edited November 1, 2011 by eclipse

[General Horace]

I'm assuming that "crit" on Valter was after you jacked his Rune?

EDIT: I'm an idiot. Wrong boss.

I did give Seth a Killing Edge to kill Caellach though

I even if Valter did have the Hoplon Guard, Saleh could have reached him by turn 4, but I wanted staff exp. The only thing that prevented a 4 turn was those stupid troubadours, actually.

[zahlman]

Prologue: no RN burn in here? The RN is rigged on Easy, right?

1: Neat, having Eirika wait in the forest tile is nice and chivalrous of Seth. I was surprised that neither soldier attacks Eirika from the north, but I guess if she'd gotten blocked then Franz is still in range to clear the path.

2: What's up with the positioning of Vanessa on turn 3? It looks like you want her in range for a bandit that Seth then OHKOs anyway? Also, Franz and Eirika need a little luck against the mountain bandits, hmm? I guess Eirika doesn't need the crit though...

3: Turn 1 is very nice, a definite improvement over what I had. Nice planning in order to get as much treasure as possible (even if it's fairly worthless) and the support (may as well, hmm?) Also very nice level up for Seth. From your description of the Fomortiis battle it sounds like he and Gerik needed to be a little bit Speed blessed... or did they get the Speedwings?

4: Beautiful. I'm kicking myself for not thinking of (a) focusing on the snag instead of the enemy on turn 1, and (b) ignoring Lute's village and letting Franz clean up there since he does a better job than Vanessa. Even so, it looks like it takes pretty precise positioning to pull this off.

5: This one honestly looks really weird to me. I did work out a way on Easy (should work on Normal as well, if the enemy stats are the same as you say) to get all the villages in 3 turns, and really the whole approach is different (I ignore the far west path completely, for one thing).

5x: Having Forde pre-clear the path is a neat trick. I was doing it by trading the Javelin to Orson, which probably means the others don't get nearly as much XP. I should have thought of hanging Kyle and Forde hang back for treasure, they don't really accomplish anything otherwise.

6: Huh, I do it by putting Seth where you put Vanessa or Joshua. He has forest-free path and barely gets to Novala with a Javelin in time. He doesn't get to hide in a forest tile vs. Novala, but he's supposed to be able to survive a hit at that point :) Nice job by Franz in the north. You can afford to rush the other units (except Artur I guess, lol) a bit more aggressively on this map (in particular, try to have someone take care of the Halberd!Bandit on PP while he's still wielding the Hand Axe, so he doesn't have a chance to make Seth cry and so you can obtain said Halberd) and send someone for the Antitoxin as well; this isn't Hard mode and the enemies are better at dying. Why the staff-spam with both healers - you're not planning to use them as warpers are you? Armorslayer!Joshua is something I must admit never occurred to me.

7: Dat salesmanship. (Tana would really like that Secret Book for Ch. 12 IMO.) Oh, but it looks like you're actually trying to get Vanessa some levels, nice. I see you manage to get the Energy Ring by going the long way around, too. This is again different from my strategy (as well as Eirika's movement), this time I would say clearly better (more robust, if nothing else).

8: >mfw I realize you haven't used the Silver Lance yet. >mfw I didn't even know Franz can talk to Forde on this map. The bit where you ignore the Door Key!Knight on PP 1 and then trade-chain the key is also pretty slick.

[General Horace]

[spoiler=Stuff]Prologue: no RN burn in here? The RN is rigged on Easy, right?

1: Neat, having Eirika wait in the forest tile is nice and chivalrous of Seth. I was surprised that neither soldier attacks Eirika from the north, but I guess if she'd gotten blocked then Franz is still in range to clear the path.

2: What's up with the positioning of Vanessa on turn 3? It looks like you want her in range for a bandit that Seth then OHKOs anyway? Also, Franz and Eirika need a little luck against the mountain bandits, hmm? I guess Eirika doesn't need the crit though...

3: Turn 1 is very nice, a definite improvement over what I had. Nice planning in order to get as much treasure as possible (even if it's fairly worthless) and the support (may as well, hmm?) Also very nice level up for Seth. From your description of the Fomortiis battle it sounds like he and Gerik needed to be a little bit Speed blessed... or did they get the Speedwings?

4: Beautiful. I'm kicking myself for not thinking of (a) focusing on the snag instead of the enemy on turn 1, and (b) ignoring Lute's village and letting Franz clean up there since he does a better job than Vanessa. Even so, it looks like it takes pretty precise positioning to pull this off.

5: This one honestly looks really weird to me. I did work out a way on Easy (should work on Normal as well, if the enemy stats are the same as you say) to get all the villages in 3 turns, and really the whole approach is different (I ignore the far west path completely, for one thing).

5x: Having Forde pre-clear the path is a neat trick. I was doing it by trading the Javelin to Orson, which probably means the others don't get nearly as much XP. I should have thought of hanging Kyle and Forde hang back for treasure, they don't really accomplish anything otherwise.

6: Huh, I do it by putting Seth where you put Vanessa or Joshua. He has forest-free path and barely gets to Novala with a Javelin in time. He doesn't get to hide in a forest tile vs. Novala, but he's supposed to be able to survive a hit at that point :) Nice job by Franz in the north. You can afford to rush the other units (except Artur I guess, lol) a bit more aggressively on this map (in particular, try to have someone take care of the Halberd!Bandit on PP while he's still wielding the Hand Axe, so he doesn't have a chance to make Seth cry and so you can obtain said Halberd) and send someone for the Antitoxin as well; this isn't Hard mode and the enemies are better at dying. Why the staff-spam with both healers - you're not planning to use them as warpers are you? Armorslayer!Joshua is something I must admit never occurred to me.

7: Dat salesmanship. (Tana would really like that Secret Book for Ch. 12 IMO.) Oh, but it looks like you're actually trying to get Vanessa some levels, nice. I see you manage to get the Energy Ring by going the long way around, too. This is again different from my strategy (as well as Eirika's movement), this time I would say clearly better (more robust, if nothing else).

8: >mfw I realize you haven't used the Silver Lance yet. >mfw I didn't even know Franz can talk to Forde on this map. The bit where you ignore the Door Key!Knight on PP 1 and then trade-chain the key is also pretty slick.

[spoiler=Response, spoilered so it wouldn't take up a ton of space]P - No RNs burnt, I just attacked with Eirika because she doubles and would have finished on the EP anyway (if she didn't die). Seth didn't really need the 4 exp or whatever he would have gotten.

1 - Even if the soldiers did block Eirika to the north, as you said, Franz would have kicked one out of the way, or Seth could have used the Silver Lance on the boss

2 - I remember thinking I wanted Vanessa to get some exp, then I said "Fuck it" and just let Seth kill them anyhow. on the bandits to the north, I could have had Franz back of instead of attacking on the last player phase, so Eirika could have finished (because she doubled, and Franz didn't).

3 - I got the treasure for fun, the only ones that I really wanted were the hand axe and javelin. I facepalmed a little when Seth missed the boss. And for Fortimiis, Gerik had Garm to boost his speed, and Seth did get a speedwings. I think Gerik had exactly enough, and Seth had one additional speed.

4 - On my test run, I had Vanessa take care of the south area, because with a strength proc, she ORKO's the two enemies that Franz killed on turn 2 EP. Artur could have killed the east enemies instead of Garcia, but it's too risky.

5 - I could have easily got all the villages, but I mispositioned Artur on turn 1, and he couldn't reach the secret book village, and I didn't feel like restarting. Didn't need the guiding ring anyway, although I could have sold it, I guess.

5x - The killer lance was the only item I really wanted. Ephraim faced (low) death chances on the last EP, but that aside, he was fine.

6 - In all honesty, I was going to restart to get the halberd, then I thought of when I would ever need it. This was the closest Seth came to dying in the entire run, lol. And I don't think I healed him once. I was staff spamming the healers (mostly Moulder) in case something went horribly wrong and Saleh didn't have warp in time. And Joshua only had the armourslayer because he had it from getting the Ch. 5 village. I don't think he was ever deployed after this map anyhow.

7 - If Eirika doesn't suck you can do this in 3 turns (if she can OHKO/ORKO with a crit) but mine couldn't double or OHKO, and her odds of survival were really low. 3 turns only really ever occurs in drafts where Eirika is like level 15.

8 - I actually don't know if I ever use the silver lance The only time Silvers are better than Killers are when they OHKO/ORKO when Killers don't, and it's pretty rare in this game.

[zahlman]

Lol just noticed Garm is +Speed, pwnage.

on the bandits to the north, I could have had Franz back of instead of attacking on the last player phase, so Eirika could have finished (because she doubled, and Franz didn't).

Yeah, that's how I did it. Exactly ORKO both on turn 4 EP.

5 - I could have easily got all the villages, but I mispositioned Artur on turn 1, and he couldn't reach the secret book village, and I didn't feel like restarting. Didn't need the guiding ring anyway, although I could have sold it, I guess.

I would have thought you'd want it to promote Artur as early as possible? I totally ran out of Lightning by Ch8 on my last attempt

5x - The killer lance was the only item I really wanted.

Sounds about right.

3 turns only really ever occurs in drafts where Eirika is like level 15.

Or with copious RNG abuse? :3 I guess you're also not getting the Energy Ring this way either, unless Colm pulls off some epic ninja backflips (even more abuse)...

Edited November 1, 2011 by zahlman

[General Horace]

I would have thought you'd want it to promote Artur as early as possible? I totally ran out of Lightning by Ch8 on my last attempt

Or with copious RNG abuse? :3 I guess you're also not getting the Energy Ring this way either, unless Colm pulls off some epic ninja backflips (even more abuse)...

I wanted Artur promoted in time to get Warp for Chapter 20, and I think he hit A Staves in Chapter 18. Saleh was able to get A staves easy enough by chapter 16. (Well, kind of)

I probably couldn't get the energy ring, and Vanessa would have to at least dodge the archers, 1 soldier, and possibly the ballista, and Eirika would have to crit. I don't like the odds on that one.

Chapter 9-13 is uploading, but it will be a while because my internet is mexican.

Edited November 2, 2011 by General Horace

[General Horace]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SH40ZqXb1rc

Insert overly long video of Chapter 9-13.

Well, actually, most of it is chapter 12, but enjoy anyway.

[General Horace]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJXkTW0WmwE

Chapter 14-16. Note that I redid Chapter 15, (and 16) because I needed to get the Spear required for the one turn on 17.

[zahlman]

9: Yeah, I messed up by not having Franz promoted already - seems to be necessary to get both villages. Other than that I went about it quite differently though. Your maneuvering with the Seth drop seems to work a lot better than what I was doing, and lets you get a little more exp for Tana too...

10: So, pretty straightforward then. Tana gets the Angelic Robe (is the choice between Tana and Vanessa as arbitrary as I think it is here? I went with Tana too though...), and needs to dodge 1 of 2 the first time, and then one shot needs to be dodged on EP 2 as well (since if Tana doesn't get hit on round 1 I assume it'll target Vanessa instead). Wish I knew why they didn't target Tana when I 4-turned it. :/

11: Any chance that Ranger!Gerik's movement would help in this chapter or later ones? Or is Garm just that important? I wouldn't have thought sending that many units down the left side would be optimal. I do think the enemy stats must be slightly higher than on Easy, because I was sure Innes ORKOd everything in the tower. (Not that it really makes a difference :/) Same thing with Artur having so much difficulty with the Hand Axe!Pirate in 9, actually. Why not use the recently acquired Chest Key, open the one chest at least, and let the Mauthe Doog suicide on EP?

12: Had fun? :) I see Tana got a fair bit of exp already. But no stat boosters besides the one Angelic Robe? Lololol Hatchet!Dozla, too bad he doesn't use it. (Sigh, this is the one chapter where he has a natural advantage and I didn't field him ) Interesting idea on Turn 1-2 (I rescue-dropped Seth with both fliers, and used Tethys to help speed everyone else around the long way; then let Vanessa take out Mogalls and Tana bee-line for the north Bael, instead of dropping another unit). Neat how the whole exercise with Saleh is basically so he can start Barrier spamming ASAP, and his combat isn't even needed for the south units. Lol Forde fail :/ I was using Innes to deal with those Gargoyles but I guess it isn't really necessary, and it's nice to have better EP instead... Eirika cherry-tap ftw :) I didn't realize the north Bael could actually be lured south that easily rather than east o_O Killer Lance!Vanessa has to crit both times, yeah? What if you let Tana do it instead?

13: Zzz. I guess fielding Innes just to say "lol I actually used a ballista" is bad because he "steals exp". ;P Going around the long way to meet Amelia is neat, and frees up Tethys to help with staff-spamming, nice. (I did it by taking out the soldier to Amelia's north, using Tethys to help Franz get there, walking Amelia back and having someone else rescue her.) Really, so much of what goes on in this chapter is irrelevant to the chapter goal, it's neat to see how you take the opportunity to keep thinking long-term. That includes how Gerik does so much of the work here rather than Seth, I guess.

[General Horace]

[spoiler=9-13 Stuff]

9: Yeah, I messed up by not having Franz promoted already - seems to be necessary to get both villages. Other than that I went about it quite differently though. Your maneuvering with the Seth drop seems to work a lot better than what I was doing, and lets you get a little more exp for Tana too...

10: So, pretty straightforward then. Tana gets the Angelic Robe (is the choice between Tana and Vanessa as arbitrary as I think it is here? I went with Tana too though...), and needs to dodge 1 of 2 the first time, and then one shot needs to be dodged on EP 2 as well (since if Tana doesn't get hit on round 1 I assume it'll target Vanessa instead). Wish I knew why they didn't target Tana when I 4-turned it. :/

11: Any chance that Ranger!Gerik's movement would help in this chapter or later ones? Or is Garm just that important? I wouldn't have thought sending that many units down the left side would be optimal. I do think the enemy stats must be slightly higher than on Easy, because I was sure Innes ORKOd everything in the tower. (Not that it really makes a difference :/) Same thing with Artur having so much difficulty with the Hand Axe!Pirate in 9, actually. Why not use the recently acquired Chest Key, open the one chest at least, and let the Mauthe Doog suicide on EP?

12: Had fun? :) I see Tana got a fair bit of exp already. But no stat boosters besides the one Angelic Robe? Lololol Hatchet!Dozla, too bad he doesn't use it. (Sigh, this is the one chapter where he has a natural advantage and I didn't field him ) Interesting idea on Turn 1-2 (I rescue-dropped Seth with both fliers, and used Tethys to help speed everyone else around the long way; then let Vanessa take out Mogalls and Tana bee-line for the north Bael, instead of dropping another unit). Neat how the whole exercise with Saleh is basically so he can start Barrier spamming ASAP, and his combat isn't even needed for the south units. Lol Forde fail :/ I was using Innes to deal with those Gargoyles but I guess it isn't really necessary, and it's nice to have better EP instead... Eirika cherry-tap ftw :) I didn't realize the north Bael could actually be lured south that easily rather than east o_O Killer Lance!Vanessa has to crit both times, yeah? What if you let Tana do it instead?

13: Zzz. I guess fielding Innes just to say "lol I actually used a ballista" is bad because he "steals exp". ;P Going around the long way to meet Amelia is neat, and frees up Tethys to help with staff-spamming, nice. (I did it by taking out the soldier to Amelia's north, using Tethys to help Franz get there, walking Amelia back and having someone else rescue her.) Really, so much of what goes on in this chapter is irrelevant to the chapter goal, it's neat to see how you take the opportunity to keep thinking long-term. That includes how Gerik does so much of the work here rather than Seth, I guess.

[spoiler=9-13 Stuff Response]9 - Seth had to have requisite Strength here to 4HKO Binks with the javelin, and he had some 80ish hittrates on the fighters around there, but other than that, nothing too special. You might need Promoted Franz/Forde (probably not Kyle since he has a lower base level than Forde), or Tana might be able to drop a cav close enough on turn 2, but I doubt it.

10 - Tana needs to get pretty lucky here, although the hitrates aren't overwhelmingly high (especially the 2nd turn). I had two Angelic Robes at this point, but I'm glad I saved one, because it was needed for Audulma!Seth with a +7 barrier boost to be 3HKO'd by Lyon.

11 - I don't actually remember what's in those chests, I hope they weren't useful :/ I made Gerik a Hero not because of Garm, but because of ORKO'ing with Hand axes (1-2 range > 1 move). My Artur was horrendously speed screwed (I can't remember if he was at this point, but he finished with less than 10 speed) and usually should be able to double the pirate (because he's weighed down by the hand axe). And Innes ORKO'd an entombed with a longbow on easy?

12 - Tana couldn't use the Killer Lance, she still had a D in lances. And yes, Nessie had to crit both time, because she still had base strength >.<

13 - TBH, I just put Seth and Gerik next to each other because they both wrecked things, and were invincible, and they targeted Gerik instead. You could have just put Franz behind Gerik and Seth, and then recruited Amelia, it was probably easier, but oh well.

Edited November 4, 2011 by General Horace

[eclipse]

Uhh. . .Chapter 11 chests contain a Secret Book, Short Spear, and Restore/Torch/something like that, IIRC.

[zahlman]

Tana might be able to drop a cav close enough on turn 2, but I doubt it.

Actually, I did it with Joshua, and it wasn't too hard... turn 1: Tana waits behind Joshua who takes care of the Ocean Seal!Pirate on EP, while Vanessa takes Seth over. Turn 2: Vanessa drops Seth on the north shore and backs off 1 space, so that she's 2 spaces north of the village entrance. Tana picks up Joshua and flies as far south as is safe. Turn 3: Seth moves southwest of the shaman and takes him out. Vanessa visits the village and retreats. Tana drops Killing Edge!Joshua (a Steel Sword would have worked too, but Iron is not enough Mt) near the corner of the wall, such that the two mercenaries can't reach him (and will go for Seth instead) but some pirates and an archer go after him. She retreats so that the archer can't hurt her. Turn 4: Seth has just enough movement to put javelins into Binks, Tana takes out the archer, and Joshua goes southwest to aggro the bandit reinforcements and drinks a Vulnerary just in case.

But since I hadn't promoted Franz he couldn't get to the west village this way, and Vanessa can't reach both villages either. Even if I had promoted Franz and rushed him (I guess he would have to take out the Myrmidon or whatever on the way), I'm not sure that this approach would leave enough combat for the soldiers and mages...

I had two Angelic Robes at this point, but I'm glad I saved one, because it was needed for Audulma!Seth with a +7 barrier boost to be 3HKO'd by Lyon.

... That's kinda why I was using Myrrh >_>

I don't actually remember what's in those chests, I hope they weren't useful :/

The first one is a Secret Book I think, so not exactly critical. The second I think is some kind of staff, not sure there's any way to get to it in 5 turns anyway. The last one, um, lol.

Edit: Secret Book, confirmed. The SF item list doesn't even mention the other two chests though >_<

(1-2 range > 1 move).

Ah, makes sense. I was somehow totally ignoring that Heroes get +1 move anyway >_>

Innes ORKO'd an entombed with a longbow on easy?

I could be mis-remembering that. Wish I had a savestate to check.

You could have just put Franz behind Gerik and Seth, and then recruited Amelia, it was probably easier, but oh well.

My main concern was making sure Amelia didn't suicide while moving forward as quickly as possible. That sounds kind of stupid now that I write it down :P

Edited November 4, 2011 by zahlman