[FE6] Psychotic Yandere Teacher Cecilia's Experimental Draft of Chaotic Evil, er, Fun

[zahlman]

Bros before Ho's: so many turns I have to spoiler it

51/156

I don't manage to get a Thunder from Lilina before she dies, which I'd been hoping for. I do get to steal from Cath and the other thief, and end up with everything except the nice swords which are what actually matter . Just getting through the initial rush is hard enough. Roy is nearly out of room for levels, so I try to let asshole Astol do most of the work... but he can't dodge everything, he has WTD just like Roy, and oh yeah, fucking javelins asdf.

Speaking of javelins, Barth rescues Oujay and stands with one just outside the broken wall, also protecting Wendy, eventually taking out the archers in time for the party to meet up. Cath runs into us at turn 17 at the top of the stairs. The original plan was for Lilina to follow behind Cath and her fellow thief, but it didn't look like the area would be sufficiently clear, so she backed away, "conveniently" aggroing the Elfire!Mage in the treasure room who apparently will pick up on your scent from 2-turn range. She lets said mage chase her around her starting cell... just in time for reinforcements to come streaming out and mob her.

This gives the main group time to regroup at the east entrance to the treasure room. We're low on Vulneraries even with Astol having stolen a bunch on the way down and Roy bringing one in to start. Roy has taken the Armorslayer from Oujay (losing that would be unacceptable), who at one point is needed to suicide himself in a blaze of glory with the Steel Sword (I wanted that :( ) while Barth and Roy heal. Wendy is sacrificed to bait the Killer Lance!Knight off to the side a bit, enabling Roy to sneak through while (eventually - I totally could have done this more cleanly, but this whole exercise is so asdf that I don't want to repeat it for a lower turn count) Astol steals the Chest Key and Barth ORKOs as long as neither of them gets crit (and they didn't, yayyyyyyyy). Thankfully, there are no more reinforcements; we got rid of them all in the last epic battle. Everyone is still badly injured, so they head around to the far side of the throne to grab the last Vulnerary off that Mage first. This turns out not to be necessary, as neither Mage, nor the Knight, nor Leygance ends up scoring a hit. Armorslayer!Astol eventually scores the boss kill (exactly 3HKO to start, with 43% display hit and obviously enough speed to double; RNG abuse could have made this a lot shorter) with Roy waiting to seize, while Barth uses the Chest Keys to grab the rest of the loot.

In spite of my efforts not to use Roy, he gains more exp here than on any other chapter except 6 thus far.

Name 	Class 	Level  HP  Str  Skl  Spd  Lck  Def  Res
Roy      Lord   18.99  38    9   15   17   18    6    7

Now my Roy is Res-blessed, too. o_O

@domu Ch7 is honestly not that bad, it's just long. This one is pure hell, though. Use the skills you learned in Ch6 to avoid over 9000 restarts.

Edited November 8, 2011 by zahlman

[eclipse]

Tabs. DO NOT USE THEM. That's what the space bar is for.

[Baldrick]

I think the most interesting runthroughs will be lorddomu's and zahlman's, for pure epicness.

Also, I have also had codebox shenanigans. It seems to space the columns randomly.

*sighs*

Fine, here. Copy THIS codebox, and see if it helps, lorddomu.

Name 	Class 	Level  HP  Str  Skl  Spd  Lck  Def  Res
Roy      Lord      12.??  27   8   11   11   14    7    5

I literally did not alter the codebox. It be cursed, yar.

[eclipse]

Hmmm. I turned off WYSIWYG, so everything is in Courier and monospace. If in doubt, plop the box, code and all, into Notepad (assuming your default font is Courier New; if not, change it). That should take care of the spacing issues.

[zahlman]

Where's the option to turn off wysiwyg?

[eclipse]

Click on your name at the top -> Your Profile -> uncheck "Enable visual (RTE) editor?"

[zahlman]

Click on your name at the top -> Your Profile -> uncheck "Enable visual (RTE) editor?"

Sweet. Now I can feel like a proper ha><0r again. The RTE editor, like, totally converts spaces into tabs, except wrongly.

Cleanup in Isle One 12/168

I actually did a large number of test runs for this, plus repeats due to random deaths. I really wanted to get the Silver Sword, but testing suggested it would cost about 17 extra turns and it's about time I started getting serious, yeah? I doubt that thing could save me 17 turns later with only 20 uses...

The basic plan is for Roy to roflstomp axe mooks who have a max hit rate of about 5, not get too unlucky against the few sword and magic users, all while making a bee-line for the boss. He arranges things to land in Hand Axe range first so that he can get in one round with the Killing Edge not facing a Killer Axe. Scott's hitrate is low enough that it isn't a huge concern, but why take more chances than necessary? Anyway, Fir and Shin both survived because Roy didn't have time for their shit, and all the villages got pwned because saving innocents is for noobs.

The good news: the next two chapters technically aren't solos. Plus, these Western Isles levels full of bandits vs. Roy's 55 base evade are about the closest thing to "fun" I'm likely to experience in the entire playthrough. The bad news: Roy won't get any more buff for almost the entire rest of the game except via stat boosters (there's a Secret Book left over for him to nom; I didn't feel like I could afford time/inventory space for him to use it here), and one use of the Elixir is gone (and if I'm reading right, there are not many more available except via the secret shops).

Name 	Class 	Level  HP  Str  Skl  Spd  Lck  Def  Res
Roy      Lord   20.00  40   11   16   18   19    6    8

Roy gained one point of def in 19 25% chances. :Eliwood: Son, I am disappoint.

Isle Be Back 16/184

Pretty much the same idea, except with dark magic instead of anima, and a ballista. Geese seems like more of a liability than an asset, not worth talking to to recruit, since he has bad hit rates even on the bandits and completely fails WRT the sword dudes. Also, who would I give the Brave Axe to later? The village is also obviously not a concern. This took a few tries to figure out the best path to avoid getting blocked in by enemies and to 1RKO as much as possible with the two Steel Swords I had. Gonzo ran away and healed after the first round of combat, which was nice because he wasn't in my way. The ballista apparently only fired twice. Oh look, I get a Wyrmslayer. Used another charge of the Elixir, one left. I hope I don't need it for a while.

No more stat blocks until Cecilia get, since Roy's capped. I'll make a note of him nomming the Secret Book if he does.

Lalum On Real Thick 21/205

I guess I could redo this and shave a few turns if I got everything exactly right (in particular, I still have 5 uses of Killing Edge left and it would have been nice to use some on Oro), but there's just so much asdf stuff that can go wrong that I didn't want to bother.

SP is right about enemies failing here. My Roy is doubling most of what's on this map with a Steel Blade FFS. But without anyone drafted, I'm still so outnumbered that real problems are caused. The NPCs certainly help by acting as bait. Lalum was kept alive until after I recruited Klein with Roy, and then flailed around in the skirmish until death. Don't worry, I have something much better planned for Sophia. Echidna remained an NPC, and fought valiantly, but really doesn't stand a chance without any healing. After Klein recruited Tate, Klein and Roy went to the gate to tag-team the boss, while Tate flew literal circles around the enemy reinforcements to pick up stuff from the villages, since she fails so much at actual combat here. She missed the Axereaver because a bandit sneaked through and destroyed that village, but she did get the Speedwings and Dragonshield (yesz!), and survived. Klein didn't, ironically enough, but he did at least trade the White Gem over to Roy during the boss battle. On EP after the boss KO, Roy had to dodge like 3 40s from cav reinforcements, but honestly everything else in this chapter is massively luck-dependant anyway with so few units, so...

CATH IS TOP TIER 21/226

Speaking of luck dependance. Mother Earth and Father Sky did this take a lot of retries, and is almost certainly impossible starting from a hard reset.

The plan: Roy takes two Vulneraries (the last Elixir charge was needed vs. Oro), the Wyrmslayer, a full Armorslayer and an Iron Sword (because the Steel is almost done and I didn't get that Silver asdf... I also tried using the Steel Blade instead of the Armorslayer and found it quite inferior). He ninjas his way through the gauntlet, dodging over 9000 arrows and Flux bolts, several 11%s or so from Sleep staves, and possible instant death from some low-hit Killer Axes; arranges himself to use the Armorslayer at key times to actually take out the armors (and in order to actually 2HKO some of the bandits in the gauntlet at key points where it's necessary to avoid being slowed down too much), without taking on too much risk from the lowered evade. Because of his crappy Str he also needs one specific bandit to make a bad roll for HP. Once he gets through all of that, he has to recruit Cath just as she comes by (and her movement is erratic - on the run where I finally succeeded, I actually arrived early, and had to wait like 2 turns for her because I learned the hard way earlier that she gets scared if you pursue her - and this was one of the runs where she decided to take an unusually direct route), have her unlock the door and block off one of the reinforcement stairs (which in turn means you have to get all this done before those reinforcements start showing up, or else I just get hemmed in and crushed by the next wave of reinforcements from the far south, if the wyverns don't get me) and hopefully also trade away her Vulnerary. Finally Roy makes his way in front of Aine while the other units hopefully swarm Cath and she dodges enough to keep their attention, even though she's easily put to Sleep. Once Roy is in position, he needs to hit 3 times in succession (or a 1% crit), 2 on EP and 1 on the next PP, with 68% display hit. If the wyverns have caught up then it's already too late, because if you try to take them out with the Wyrmslayer then it will get destroyed on EP (and nothing else can even scratch Aine), and otherwise they're just much too dangerous.

On the run where I finally made it through all that ridiculousness, my Wyrmslayer got broken by suiciding bandits on EP after taking out Aine. I had two Vulneraries - one from Cath and one that I hadn't touched from the initial stock, but I really, really couldn't depend on that sort of thing. Oh, 14 uses of Armorslayer too. Leaving 9 split between two of them. Sadface.

Cath dies of course, and I thus don't even get the Brave Bow or Elysian Whip that she steals by default, not that I'd have any use for them. No, the sucky part is that she won't be around for Ch 16.

This was doing it as quickly as possible pretty much out of necessity; you get wtfpwned otherwise, and even if Roy could somehow survive the mob that shows up eventually, he'd run out of weapons with no way to get more. Finishing it in exactly enough turns to avoid 12x is complete coincidence.

Lorddomu, if you still have hair by the time you've gotten this far, you have my respect. I'm amazed I do.

Edited November 9, 2011 by zahlman

[Baldrick]

Chapter 6 - 13 turns, 45 total

Where is everybody?

They're all dead. That dark mage killed them all. Except for Harry Potter here. My name's not Harry. It's -

OK, Lott, Harry, we're going to charge down the centre of the map and chip that dark mage to death. Saul will keep us fresh, and Dorothy will do whatever, steel bows are awful.

Hm, maybe we should open the rooms, in case we find any potential allies locked up?

What? No. That's a terrible plan. We're drastically outnumbered here, and we don't have any thieves, so we'd have to waste a door key.

It sounds like there's a battle going on outside. Maybe I'll be rescued.

Afterwards

Well, that was embarrassing. Our whole army being beaten by five people. At least they didn't rescue the hostage. She's young and beautiful, so she should make us a pretty penny on the slave market.

Chapter 7 - 12 turns, 57 total

This chapter wasn't too bad. Lugh ran out of Fire halfway through, so he had to run to the shop, and because I didn't think to get a door key, I had to go running back to the shop. I would've redone the chapter, but Roy got a dynamite level up (everything except def grew) so I'll push on. Zealot hit the boss with an Armorslayer and Lugh finished him. Managed to get all the villages except the Horseslayer one. Not a huge loss. Had to give up on the extra Rapier, though.

Name     Class     Level  HP  Str  Skl  Spd  Lck  Def  Res
Roy	 Lord      9.38   25   9    9   12   13    9    4
Lott	 Fighter   13.10  38   9   11    9    6   11    2
Lugh	 Mage      10.85  21  10   10    9    9    5    9

[zahlman]

Chapter 6 - 13 turns, 45 total

Where is everybody?

They're all dead. That dark mage killed them all. Except for Harry Potter here. My name's not Harry. It's -

OK, Lott, Harry, we're going to charge down the centre of the map and chip that dark mage to death. Saul will keep us fresh, and Dorothy will do whatever, steel bows are awful.

Hm, maybe we should open the rooms, in case we find any potential allies locked up?

What? No. That's a terrible plan. We're drastically outnumbered here, and we don't have any thieves, so we'd have to waste a door key.

It sounds like there's a battle going on outside. Maybe I'll be rescued.

Afterwards

Well, that was embarrassing. Our whole army being beaten by five people. At least they didn't rescue the hostage. She's young and beautiful, so she should make us a pretty penny on the slave market.

Why not trade Wolt's old Iron Bow to Dorothy? That's what I did, made things quite a bit more possible.

[Baldrick]

Why not trade Wolt's old Iron Bow to Dorothy? That's what I did, made things quite a bit more possible.

Like an idiot, I got Wolt killed trying to pass the gate in chapter 5. I also didn't realise you could buy Iron in the deployment screen until chapter 8, and it wasn't worth it to redo it (she wouldn't have been that helpful against the boss anyway).

Speaking of chapter 8... it's gonna be a large update. Separated into two because of length. 26 turns, 81 total

:Astol: Lord Roy, I can help you open locks in order to reach ... why don't I have an avatar?

:Lott: Emoticon limit, it seems. A lot of material had to be left out.

:Astol: If this was the stuff that was kept, I'd hate to see what was cut.

:Lott: Oh snap!

Stay in character! Don't break the fourth wall! Now, the strategy... Dammit, I should've paid more for Lance. I guess we just walk to the throne.

:Lott: Didn't you just...

Only those with avatars may break the fourth wall.

Oh boy!

...Who aren't the protagonist of a British children's book series.

Feh!

Lilina, there you are. Take this Thunder to protect yourself.

Thanks, Roy, but I don't need it.All I have to do is give them a friendship speech, and they'll join us!

Uh, just stand on the stairs and don't let any archers through, OK?

I'm helping! ... Oh look, there's a potential ally now! Hello, new friend!

Oh dear, you're hurt! Let me fix that up! ... Wait, why do have a generic name? Oh no... Ah, this is the worst pain imaginable!... Oh, I was wrong, 5 seconds ago is like a thousand heavens compared to now! I pray for the sweet release of death, but it is nowhere in sight...

[zahlman]

Holy shit you guys. After playing around with a gazillion test runs, trying to figure out a variety of AI triggers, RNG abuse, even cheating with RAM hacks just to see what would happen if I did get certain key dodges (although I ended up not using anything that I learned from the RAM hack cheating, actually)... I think I've figured out something that will allow for a clean run that actually clears Ch. 13, with surprisingly few RN burns. (And if my Roy weren't so Str/Def screwed, that might not be necessary in the first place... although I have to say I appreciate his Spd blessing for the extra evade. Lorddomu, highly recommend arranging for Roy to nom the Ch11 Speedwings during the chapter... he won't be able to afford inventory space for them on 12 or 13.) I'll reply/update when I have a clean run. I intend to detour to get the Body Ring, which might add enough of a delay to push the whole thing over 100 turns. I really, really wish I were joking about that turn count, but I'm not. And no, arena abuse isn't involved.

You'd think a game where every chapter is "seize throne" would be easier to solo relative to its ordinary difficulty >_<

Edit: I have a complete script written out that I could play through "officially" without savestates now, but I also have ideas to improve it, mostly by taking the north path. I don't really need the Al Sword if I don't actually go down that way... I think... and anyway the Body Ring is much more important. Plus that way will avoid a bunch of nonsense baiting the Ballista users.

Edit: Wow, that helped quite a bit, actually, and my turn count will be quite a bit lower than originally feared (although still ridiculously high). Also, RNs are only needed during the initial rush, where Roy is basically staying put and being a ninja vs. the initial aggros and all the reinforcements. Only 8 total RN burns, although there were a couple of places where I also found that variations in the attack pattern subtly manipulate the RNG in a helpful way. I'll do the whole run following my notes without savestates before updating, because I'm a masochist like that and want it to be "official". Honestly I never intended to go down this path, but this chapter proved it necessary. I'm hoping that with Cecilia's help for the rest of the game after this, it won't be any more.

Edit: a bunch more refinements. There are now a bunch of seemingly illogical moves that manipulate the RNG (and the AI simultaneously), but no explicit RN burns, plus it's several turns shorter again.

Edit: Figured out that with judicious use of the Horseslayer and understanding of the AI, Miledy can make herself useful earlier despite the apparent danger, and Roy will only need two Iron Swords as a result, allowing inventory space for him to bring the Horseslayer onto the map. Also worked out a slightly more aggressive way to deal with the wyverns near the throne, and played around with some RNG manipulation for the final part. These three things saved way more turns than I imagined possible. Final turn count is a surprise for the next post ;) I'm going to call it quits now; I'll go insane if I keep trying to optimize this. There are still no explicit RN burns, and it actually looks reasonably "natural" now, but there's actually some pretty heavy manipulation going on in terms of deciding on specific attack targets/orders (or just forgoing attacks that are "going to miss").

Edited November 16, 2011 by zahlman

[Baldrick]

Well if I wait any longer it will feel like necroposting.

If Ephraim can do it, so can I!

:Narshen: You're no Ephraim, though. You're more like Leaf, but without crusader scrolls to make you decent!

Oh, it is on now! (I'm so screwed. Only a miracle can save me now...)

Oh Woooooy! What's going on?

:Narshen: Wait a sec. Who are you?

Now, I can't have understood the situation correctly, because it sounded like you were going to hurt my Woy.

:Narshen: You're damn right I'm going to...

:Narshen: Uh...

YOU WILL NOT TOUCH A HAIR ON ROY'S HEAD. YOU WILL LEAVE IMMEDIATELY. DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?

:Narshen: C-Crystal!

Good!

:Narshen: Run away!

I don't know what you did, Cecilia, but thanks!

No problem, Roy! All you need to do is take your army over to the Western Isles and clear out all the bandits.

Hey, that wasn't part of the deal! The Lycia Alliance Army needs to stay here in case...

...In case Bern attacks again and Etruria isn't there to save the day because Roy had refused to do a teensy little favour for them? :(

So, the Western Isles, eh? We'll leave immediately!

Chapter 9 - 12 turns, 94 total

I love axe-heavy chapters. Astol detoured to get the Silver Sword, didn't bother with the other villages since I automatically go on the right path. Killed the boss easily with Lugh (expect to hear that phrase many more times. )

Chapter 10 - 13 turns, 107 total

Decided to wait for Geese, since that Brave Axe could come in handy. Gonzo was cool and decided to heal himself and not be a bother. The zerker was the only difficult part, as I wanted to get my new Sage Lugh down there ASAP and get Roy to follow as soon as Geese was recruited, as the boss takes a few turns to kill. Eventually, I BA'd him to death without getting critted.

Chapter 11 - 13 turns, 120 total

This is an insane chapter. Klein is awesome, Echidna is good, Tate is not worth it. Couldn't save the far village, but did pick up the Speedwings and the moolah, so I'm satisfied. Even managed to do some shopping; Killer Axes will help Lott, who promoted in this chapter. Killed Lalum once Echidna was recruited; she got axed in the face, but I couldn't be bothered with screenshots or putting a story behind it. I'm out of emoticons anyway

Chapter 12 - 10 turns, 130 total

Gave up on the treasures that are not Aircalibur. Lugh practically soloed this chapter. Recruited Ray, which turned out to be pointless.

Chapter 12x - 9 turns, 139 total

I backed myself to finish both chapters within 20 turns, and did so. Not much to say, Roy rushed to the throne, the L brothers cleared the path. Killed the boss easily with Lugh. (See, I was right about the phrase!) Astol did less than I expected, he couldn't reach many of the chests in time. He did snag an Elixir, though.

Chapter 13 - 12 turns, 151 total

It's about time. With a mount, I was able to rescueskip some of the chapter. Went the south route so I wouldn't attract Percy. And now, Lott and Lugh have a helper in doing most of the killing.

Name     Level  HP St Sk Sp Lk Df Rs
Roy      16.99  39  9 14 14 17 11  7
Lott 20 / 3.88  54 15 20 15 11 17  3
Lugh 17 / 7.98  32 19 16 16 13 12 16
Astol    20.00  35 12 10 19 13  8  6
Miredy   14.11  33 12 14 14  6 13  3

Roy is a tank that shoots Nerf pellets.

Lott is incredibly skill blessed. I think I fed him a book at one point. (:Canas: I knew it! Warriors eat books!)

Lugh is doing his best Lilina impersonation.

Astol, unlike everyone else, is fairly ordinary.

Miredy has managed to outdo them all with the crazy growths. She has never failed to proc Speed, but is yet to proc Str or Def.

[zahlman]

Omg it's alive.

I'm actually almost done now. Brief summary: 13 was probably not as bad as it seemed to be while I was figuring out how to do it; 14 was annoying and took a lot of retries; 15 was actually kinda fun (but still took a lot of retries); 16 was just plain long; 17-19 were a joke by comparison to everything else I'd struggled through to this point; 20 and 21 were asdf and 22 is currently more asdf but I'll get it eventually.

Also I actually had gotten to Ch16 once and then accidentally loaded a Ch 14 savestate and had to redo it again. But that time through I shaved quite a few turns on Ch14 so yeah. I also did a fair amount of long-term planning to try to raise enough funds for as many stat boosters in Ch21 as possible, then realized you need a flier to get to that secret shop Whatever, I got 2 robes each for Cecilia and Roy in Ch16, and the Ch20 one went to Yodel as insurance.

Will: I take it Roy got the Angelic Robe for you too, any other stat boosters yet?

Edited November 20, 2011 by zahlman

[Baldrick]

No, Roy just has very good HP growth Yeah, I was worried about him staying alive the most, since Lott is very solid, Lugh kills everything before it can attack him, and Astol won't be seeing enough combat to make it worthwhile.

Lugh got the Dragonshield, I couldn't get the Goddess Icon or Body Ring, and Lott got the Speedwings. Right now I'm working on having Sophia pick up the Talisman in the desert, and Astol will get the Boots, both of which are going to Roy (he will need the extra movement and staff resistance)

[zahlman]

Right now I'm working on having Sophia pick up the Talisman in the desert, and Astol will get the Boots

I would strongly recommend doing that the other way around. I'm sure you can figure out why without too much effort.

With your team, I wouldn't be surprised if there were a way to go north, get the Body Ring, wait for Percy to leave, and then zergrush the rest, though it might take a few more turns. But it might not really be worthwhile for a Body Ring anyway. I'm having difficulty picturing your rescueskip technique FWIW.

Goddess Icon is lol anyway.

Ch22 40 turns. Total 524 assuming I didn't completely derp on my addition. Details later.

Edited November 21, 2011 by zahlman

[Baldrick]

I would strongly recommend doing that the other way around. I'm sure you can figure out why without too much effort.

With your team, I wouldn't be surprised if there were a way to go north, get the Body Ring, wait for Percy to leave, and then zergrush the rest, though it might take a few more turns. But it might not really be worthwhile for a Body Ring anyway. I'm having difficulty picturing your rescueskip technique FWIW.

Goddess Icon is lol anyway.

Ch22 40 turns. Total 524 assuming I didn't completely derp on my addition. Details later.

Don't worry, I have a cunning plan. If Astol grabs the Talisman, I will be delayed by a couple of turns, and my midgame means I need every turn I can salvage. The same thing applies with Ch 13, the body ring just isn't worth detouring over. The rescueskip is only minor as well; Miredy starts a PP 6 spaces ahead of Roy. Roy walks over to her, she picks him up and flies her range. Next turn she flies her range and drops him off. It saves me 2 turns, and the trouble of having to navigate Roy past the Hero.

Did you make sure to get Roy/Cecilia support?

[zahlman]

Don't worry, I have a cunning plan.

Does it involve RNG abuse? Because I'm ok with that if others are, but I couldn't figure out how to make it work right in the desert anyway. If it doesn't, I can't wait for the details. :)

the body ring just isn't worth detouring over.

Honestly, it wouldn't have been even for me, except that it was right there anyway with my strategy. Base Roy only loses 1AS from killers.

The rescueskip is only minor as well; Miredy starts a PP 6 spaces ahead of Roy. Roy walks over to her, she picks him up and flies her range. Next turn she flies her range and drops him off. It saves me 2 turns, and the trouble of having to navigate Roy past the Hero.

Oh, that makes sense. I totally derped and thought you were talking about the staff, even though you don't get it until Ch16 and wouldn't have anyone qualified to use it anyway.

Did you make sure to get Roy/Cecilia support?

You'll laugh, but on the runthrough I ended up going with for Chapter 22, I got the A support on the turn before the bosskill. They should have had plenty of opportunity to do it while running back from the second switch, but I guess I forgot to set them adjacent during that run. Although honestly I should have tried harder for it early. I realized eventually that it actually makes a massive difference - +7 accuracy, +15 avoid in a game where hitrates are often not that far from the 50% mark where it makes the most difference due to double RNG system, and which is more than the difference WTA/WTD makes (+10 each way)? YES PLZ. Not to mention attack +3 (better than attack +1/defense +1 from WTA/WTD) and crit/crit evade (not that crit evade is a big issue, but getting random crits with ordinary weapons / making killers more reliable is always welcome).

I also had a runthrough where I got the support and then was going to claim the throne, but Cecilia died to the mooks in the throne room. Obviously that's not allowed, since it erases the support from your display. Actually, the one I kept involved some pretty insane dodging luck on Cecilia's part, but she could have avoided the need for that by not failing as much earlier on. I really found myself wishing there were more Elixirs in this game. (Yeah, yeah, 12x. I almost qualified for that, and it was hell to do so. Not to mention, good luck actually getting the stuff before the thieves do in a Roy solo.)

Also, before I start posting turncounts and summaries and stuff, I feel the need to share this screenshot from my epilogue:

66 "L" (whatever that actually means) from a single round of combat. Pretty sure Rose didn't even get a critical on that runthrough unfortunately.

Edited November 21, 2011 by zahlman

[Baldrick]

Chapter 14 - 15 turns, 166 total

Sophia, can I have a word?

Yes, General Cecilia.

About the strategy... Roy wants to draw the enemies out into the desert, so when he yells "Charge to the village!", we all run in the opposite direction, OK?

Sure, I'll let the others know...

No, don't worry about it, I've already told them. Also, in order to prevent any Bern spies from overhearing the plan, make sure not to mention anything about it to anyone.

OK people, let's go! Charge to the village! Miredy, carry the mage over the ledge so he can AK the mercenaries, then help kill them since you'll need to promote for the next chapter! Cecilia, stick with me! Astol, get the boots, and the Warp staff!

Lott, do whatever, Miredy can't carry you because you're too fat! Sophia, go get the Guiding... where did she go? Eh, she's a shaman, she can catch up easily. I'm sure whatever she's doing is important.

Oh dear, I seem to have become seperated from the group

An enemy magic user has become isolated from her meatshield, the perfect meal for the mighty berserker.

Who's there?

All of a sudden, he appears out of the sandstorm!

Ah!

The magic user is no match for the berserker. She is obliterated

Maggie, what are you doing? Why are you holding your axe to your face?

Uh, no reason.

And why are you talking in a British accent?

What accent I mean, what accent?

Dammit, were you filming another nature documentary? I told you already, this is a pseudo-medieval world with high fantasy elements! There's no such thing as TV! And besides, the axe is for killing dudes, it can't record light and sound so that they can be observed at a later time! Now, let's go break the skulls of that army.

We'll never catch them, Rose. They seem to be in a tremendous hurry for some reason.

By loading Sophia up with nearly used up weapons, she could dig up statboosters while waiting to die and have them sent automatically to Merlinus. The Guiding Ring is just a nugget at this point, and the trouble of keeping her alive makes it not worth my while.

Chapter 15 - 6 turns, 172 total

I want to punch the enemy designer who gave Silver Bows to the archers. Somehow Miredy avoided getting in range. Lott, Igrene and Roy did most of the killing of the enemies in the south, Cecilia kept everyone alive and tried to survive. The valkyrie went down to a Killer Bow critical, and the cavs took a Halberd/Rapier to the face. I could ignore the squad of mercs and archers, once Cecilia and Igrene parked on the mountains. Percival just reached Lott, but couldn't kill him.

Astol can just reach the village in 6 turns, considering he has to detour to avoid the melee. So Miredy plonked Lugh on the mountain near the boss on turn 4, then put Roy within range of the throne on turn 6.

Chapter 16 - 13 turns, 185 total

Everyone ran the gauntlet, Fa killing mages to get her stats up. Miredy has to chip the mamkute so she could OHKO it. As always, Lugh took on the other big guns, the snipers in the treasure room, Douglas (no chapter 16x for me) and the knights. Cecilia ran to get treasure (I may come to regret that if I reach Zephiel too quickly), and Narshen fell like a sack of bricks once Astol stole his Delphi Shield (now Miredy is even more broken!).

Chapter 17 - 10 turns, 195 total

Decided to wait for the sand-bridge, Lott went to the arena to pass the time. Miredy cleared the path so Roy and Cecilia could walk hand-in-hand to the boss.

Name     Level  HP St Sk Sp Lk Df Rs
Roy      18.96  39  9 15 16 19 12  9
Lott 20 / 7.09  57 16 22 17 12 17  4
Lugh 17 /12.22  34 22 17 17 16 12 18
Astol    20.00  35 12 10 19 13  8  6
Mire 18 / 4.79  44 20 19 20  7 15  5
Cecilia   3.94  31 11  7 10 10  7 14
Igrene    3.12  34 16 19 16  9 11 10 
Faaaaaaa  9.14  26  9  8  7 18  4 15

Edited November 22, 2011 by Dr. Will

[riariadne]

66 "L" (whatever that actually means) from a single round of combat. Pretty sure Rose didn't even get a critical on that runthrough unfortunately.

L is losses. It doesn't reset when you start over from the title screen, so that means you reset at least 65 times.

That's a lot of resets.

[zahlman]

It doesn't reset? So it gets saved somewhere that isn't overwritten by "Restart Chapter"... heh. But the "B"attle counter does reset... kinda weird.

Yeah, I'm not thaaaat surprised. Ch14 was balls even after figuring out a strategy that would actually work, and I tried a couple other variations quite stubbornly.

Anyway, guess I might as well start posting chapters.

Unlucky, you say? (Alt.: Miledy of Oblivion) 50/276

This was painful because Miledy is amazingly non-durable for a unit that's so awesome for her durability. She has "only" 13 Def which doesn't go very far against other Steel Lance!Wyverns or even a lot of the cavs on the map. She's also slow enough to get hit a lot, and will get doubled by practically everything while carrying Roy even if given a lighter weapon. Oh, and there are a couple of random mages and archers about which can really ruin her day. This map really sucks for clearing with few units because there are a lot of enemies, and since the reinforcements are bound to catch up to a small group, and a bunch of non-aggro enemies are aggroed by large zones or 2-turn range, there are very few enemies you can plausibly skip.

Complicating matters somewhat, I didn't manage to grab any of the Elysian Whips previously in the game: Cath got there first on Ch 8, Tate's soldiers got pretty thoroughly pwned, and I somehow didn't get a chance to trade one away from Cath on Ch 12 before she got swarmed. I think there are ways to manipulate the AI to make her open the throne room without recruiting her, but I think I also really needed her to block one of the stairwells.

Because I couldn't insta-promote Miledy, she had that much harder of a time with enemies in general. Also, with 8 move instead of 7, I think it would have been possible for her to fly, along the north edge of the map, from just outside the trigger zone to dry land near the arena before the wyverns that start near the castle actually got to her. (She can't really land near the ballista because the Paladins double her even if she isn't carrying Roy.)

(Speaking of Ch 12, I forgot to mention (because it's so unremarkable) that I completely ignored Ray. Why would I mention that? Because I have a pet name for him that I like to share at every opportunity. It's "Dugh". You know, Hugh, Dugh and Lugh... ok, fine, it isn't that funny :P)

On Roy's side, meanwhile, I've run out of Rapier, Wyrmslayer and Light Brand uses. I can't just rush Flaer by sacrificing Miledy, because even if I could give Roy enough of a headstart to avoid running into reinforcements (hard because the ballistae cover the direct paths thoroughly), he would pretty much tink Flaer.

Fortunately, Roy's stats make him almost untouchable by the cavs, even with WTD, if he hides in a bush and uses a light sword. Almost, hence making a complete, precise script for the level to avoid unfortunate accidents. Also fortunately, I have a very lightly used Horseslayer that gives Miledy pretty decent hitrates, an extra point of damage against Wyverns (which sometimes makes all the difference), and the ability to OHKO any cav or even slightly chipped Paladin.

I tried many approaches to this level. The first was to try to fly right away along the south edge of the map (Miledy will be in ballista range twice and faces very high hitrates, and takes 19 or 20 damage from them. If it's only 19, she can survive being hit both times with a Vulnerary boost in between), negotiate a path to the Al's Sword village, let Roy fight everyone off and then treck up to Flaer. This... fails spectacularly. Trying to send Roy directly to Flaer also doesn't work, because as mentioned earlier, he can't get the bosskill anyway.

The next approach was to wait in the starting area (with Miledy on an ocean tile), have Roy ninja-tank all the aggros and reinforcements, then have him bait the ballista archers, and then have Miledy and Roy tag-team the rest of the map. This was very slow and required a few RN burns to avoid running out of Vulnerary uses. I also hadn't thought about the Horseslayer at this point.

Eventually I worked out that I could have Roy go north at the start, have Miledy help him get into one of the bushes in the far northwest while waiting over the mountains, have Miledy cherry-pick a couple of units while Roy tanked the rest, get the body ring, have Miledy draw aggro from the Wyverns near the castle (referred to as "Flaer's cohort" in my notes), fight them on the bridge while outside the range to draw aggro from the northeast cavs, then airlift to the northeast, get to the shop, buy killers and wtfpwn the rest, dependent on Miledy getting two crits on Flaer (to avoid her either dying or taking way too long). The body ring was not hugely useful; Killing Edge was basically all Roy used for the rest of the game, and he only loses 1AS from that at base, so it was basically half a Speedwings (one Speedwing?). Much more useful than the Al Sword overall, though. I was only going for the Al Sword because I figured I'd need it to finish off all the reinforcements without running out of the loadout weapons, but that isn't actually a problem with careful planning and access to the Killing Edge shop.

Without further ado, the script I developed (with over 9000 savestates and restarts) and then followed (starting from a hard reset) to make it "official" (hopefully self-explanatory). There are no explicit RN burns, although there are a couple of deliberate waits and reordering of actions to manipulate the RNG, and a couple of places where the RNG state is taken advantage of (e.g. Miledy using the Steel Lance instead of the Horseslayer because it will still hit despite the low display hit%).

Roy equip with 2x vul, 2x iron sword, Horseslayer (14/16). 1E4N.

Roy 1E4N.

Roy 1N1W into bush, trade Horseslayer. Miledy 3W1S (she can stand a bunch of places, but needs to not be attackable by the Axereaver!Cav who will prefer her; the Paladin will only prefer her if he can ORKO.)

Miledy 1N, finish Paladin (E) (1 hit from Horseslayer is exactly enough). Roy finish KL!Cav (N).

Roy 1W4N. Miledy 1W1S.

Roy 2N (bush). Miledy 2S (avoid Longbows / mages).

Wait. (RN manipulation for Miledy).

Miledy attack Wyvern (E).

Roy attack Cav (W).

Roy finish Paladin (S).

Roy finish AR!Cav (W).

Roy finish KL!Cav (W).

Roy switch swords, attack Paladin (W).

Miledy 1S, OHKO Cav (S). Roy attack Paladin (W).

Roy ORKO Troubadour (W). Miledy 1S, OHKO Cav (S).

Roy finish AR!Cav (S). Miledy 6N.

Roy finish KL!Cav (S).

Roy attack Paladin (S).

Miledy 1N. Roy ORKO Troubadour (W).

Roy ORKO Troubadour (W).

Roy 2W2S, Vul.

Miledy 1E, OHKO Cav (E). Roy ORKO Troubadour (N).

Roy OHKO Mage (S) (unnecessary crit). Miledy 1E, ORKO Archer (N) with Steel Lance.

Miledy 1N, OHKO Cav (N). Roy 2S1E around Wyvern, finish Cav (W) (crit).

Roy 1S4E, Vul. Miledy 2W around Wyvern, ORKO Archer (N) with Steel Lance (lol, bush fail).

Miledy 5E2S, OHKO Cav (S). Roy Visit. From here on, Miledy uses Steel Lance except as noted.

Roy 1S2E around Wyvern, attack Wyvern (W). Miledy 7E.

Roy 4E. Miledy 6E1N.

Roy 1N4E. Miledy 5W, attack Wyvern (W).

Roy 1W, finish Wyvern (W). Miledy 4E2N, trade Vul, Vul, 1E.

Miledy 2N3E. Roy 2N3E, nom Body Ring.

Wait.

Wait.

Miledy 2W. Roy 1W.

Miledy 2E, attack Wyvern (E). Roy 2E, Vul.

Roy attack Horseslayer!Wyvern (E). Miledy 1E, finish Horseslayer!Wyvern (S) with Horseslayer.

Miledy 1E, OHKO Cav (S) with Horseslayer.

Miledy 3W2S, attack Wyvern (W).

Miledy 2N2E, finish Wyvern (S).

Miledy attack Wyvern (S).

Miledy 2W2S, finish Wyvern (S). Roy 1W, give Vul.

Miledy rescue, 5N2E.

Miledy 7E, Vul.

Miledy 7E, Vul.

Miledy 6E1S, drop Roy (S).

Miledy to Armory, sell 1-use Horseslayer and 20-use Steel Lance, Buy KL, 16x KE, Canto 1E. Roy 2E2S over Shop.

Roy 2S2E. Miledy 2S3E, trade KEs, Canto 1S.

Roy 5S. Miledy 2S2W in front of Flaer.

Miledy attack Flaer. Roy 4E.

Roy 2N2E, Seize.

I didn't record stats for Miledy because she wasn't a drafted unit, but IIRC she got 4 levels and pretty decent stat-ups from them.

I don't think anything for the rest of the game felt quite this hellish, although some chapters (14 and 20 in particular) took a stupid amount of restarts just because so many little things can mess up, and some (21 and 22 mostly) required a lot of exploration of alternate strategies to figure out something that worked.

Edited November 22, 2011 by zahlman

[Baldrick]

Would that make Canas and Nino Donald and Daisy

I have a question; it says Yuno must be alive to go to Chapter 20Ax. Of course, I'm not recruiting her, but if she is alive and not recruited, what chapter will I go to after 20?

[zahlman]

Idk, try it. I won't fault you for a few restarts, considering how many I went through :P I avoided the gaiden by exceeding the time limit not that I really had a choice with 2 units, annoyingly timed reinforcements, and craploads of status to tank.

Besides, you could have planned ahead by letting Zealot die in the arena or against the boss or something on Ch7. ;) And of course you're allowed to do the gaiden, it will just suck turncount-wise unless you have a competent warper (maybe even then). Or you could let an enemy pwn her (the Sniper will target her eventually for example). Idk if she counts towards the requirements for the Angelic Robe.

I also don't know about Zeiss re 21x, but I assume it works the same way for both of them. But then, maybe not, considering Zeis is red and Juno is green to start. But you should have just killed him anyway imo :P

Edited November 25, 2011 by zahlman

[Baldrick]

Hm, depending on whether the enemies help break down the walls, and how efficiently I can clear them, it may not be too bad. Roy/Cecilia can always use the support points, and Igrene could use the Weapon EXP. It would certainly be quicker than waiting 25 turns, if Yuno doesn't need recruiting.

Now 21x I most definitely do not want to do. If unrecruited Zeiss doesn't disqualify you, though, I do have the advantage of being able to kill Miredy off

EDIT: I tested it out, and it seems you don't qualify for either chapter. So that's the end of that.

Edited November 25, 2011 by Dr. Will

[zahlman]

That's a shame. I really wanted to see you agonize over killing off such a good unit as Miledy. Not that you're really going to need her for 22, but still...

[riariadne]

It doesn't reset? So it gets saved somewhere that isn't overwritten by "Restart Chapter"... heh. But the "B"attle counter does reset... kinda weird.

Well, that'd be silly if losses didn't reset. Every unit who died would have 1 loss and you wouldn't be able to see it because they'd be dead!

It's a good counter of how many times you reset because of unit loss throughout a playthrough, though.