[FE8] Sacred Stones As-is Draft

[Baldrick]

Artur.

Racer's list says Syrene.

[MacLovin]

Lute.

[Baldrick]

Lute.

One more

[MacLovin]

I'll take Natasha for Healing+High magic.

[Baldrick]

Racer chooses Rennac next.

I'm going with , Joshua.

Edited December 6, 2011 by Baldrick

[Naglfar]

Lute.

every time

Man, look at me missing all these FE8 drafts

[MacLovin]

every time

Man, look at me missing all these FE8 drafts

Then start one.

Its not like the end of the world if you have a backlog of a backlog of drafts.

AmiRight?

[Refa]

Moulder...& Colm, I guess.

EDIT Wait...I'm not picking Knoll. I forgot there were no promotions.

Edited December 7, 2011 by Refa

[Baldrick]

I choose L'Arachel.

Which leaves Racer with Amelia, apparently.

[MacLovin]

:facepalm: Ross and Ewan

[Racer]

I like totally have been so consumed in the Political Draft that I forgot that I was doing this

[Refa]

So Baldrick gets Neimi for early game chip damage. Oh well, time to start the draft.

EDIT Nevermind, thought there was only one unit left.

Edited December 7, 2011 by Refa

[Baldrick]

Well, Refa was right. I am taking , which leaves him with by default.

So, teams are:

Silver Harpoon - Franz, Innes, Cormag, Lute, Natasha, Ross, Ewan

Racer - Vanessa, Duessel, Gilliam, Syrene, Rennac, Amelia, Marisa

Baldrick - Kyle, Dozla, Gerik, Artur, Joshua, L'Arachel, Neimi

Refa - Tana, Saleh, Garcia, Forde, Moulder, Colm, Knoll

GOGOGO

Edited December 7, 2011 by Baldrick

[Refa]

EDIT Save for future progress.

Edited December 8, 2011 by Refa

[Racer]

Time to start!

Prologue- 3 turns

yeah yeah, Eirika does her thing.

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Chapter 1- 6 turns

Gilliam arrives, cool beans also Eirika is getting lots of Strength!

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Chapter 2- 6 turns

Oh lookie Vanessa Eirika keeps on getting strength :D.

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Chapter 3- 12 turns

Neimi recruits Colm and Eirika dosen't get Strength this time

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Chapter 4- 10 turns

Eirika isn't getting strength as much anymore Vanessa is getting good but Gilliam isn't doing very well with stat gains

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Chapter 5- 12 turns

Doing this as fast as my little legs can carry me. Eirika gets more Strength LOL.

Now Ima gonna sleep. STATS:

Unit	LVL HP  STR SKL SPD LUK DEF RES Items
Eirika  13  25  12  16  16  09  08  04  Rapier, Iron Swd, Steel Swd
Gilliam 08  29  10  09  06  05  11  05  Slim Lance, Iron Lance, Javelin
Vanessa 09  21  06  12  18  08  08  06  Iron Lance, Javelin, Pure Water, Secret Book

[zahlman]

My analysis:

This is going to be a fairly decent challenge for everyone. "As-is" is tough enough without the unit competition of a draft and no Seth. However, everyone does still get Myrrh, who I expect will be doing most of the heavy lifting later for all these teams, and almost all of it for some of them.

3. Silver Harpoon - Franz, , Cormag, , , Ross,

Franz is still good without the ability to promote because the early game exists. Natz is nice to have when you don't have access to powerful units, except that she's probably going to have durability issues while she's trying to fix everyone else's. Cormag is hurt a lot by the no-promotion thing as he's already lv 9 to start, but a physically durable flier isn't a bad thing to have. (Although he will cost turns one way or another to recruit, unless the team is doing really badly anyway.) Lv 20 Lute will pack quite a punch and probably have enough speed to be useful even later. The two trainees aren't bad either since no promotion item is required for the first promotion, and 10/20 Ross is among the strongest units available and quite durable - not bad for a final-pair pick at all. Already having Lute, I would be tempted to forget I had Ewan, honestly. Marisa would have been a better pick IMO.

This team seems likely to struggle later with only one prepromote, and especially with the gorgon egg chapter since the only high-MOV units are low-RES. Ironically, Ewan will look good here if he's used, but it's hard for me to imagine him getting trained up in time.

4. Racer - Vanessa, Duessel, Gilliam, , Rennac, , Marisa

This seems like a really solid team on the face of it. Under the conditions, Duracell has got to be pretty high tier even with the low availability and only 12 levels of room for growth, just because of the difficulty of scraping up good late-game combat. (I can't help but be reminded of dondon's 0% growths playthrough.) Rennac's combat isn't bad either, and Syrene is at least usable for combat, even if 20/1 Vanessa compares favourably (way ahead in Skill and Spd, not far behind anything else) to base Syrene. Plus she'll be able to improve while Vanessa has hit the end of the road. Gilliam is also nice to have for early game, as is Vanessa.

Of the four teams on offer, I would probably take this one. However, Racer is already posting some pretty horrible times to be perfectly honest, and AFAIK Baldrick and Refa actually know what they're doing, so...

1. Baldrick - Kyle, , , Artur, , L'Arachel, Neimi,

Dozla is an interesting early pick. He has some spots where he shines, but I'd prefer Duessel here for sure (and yeah, too bad about not getting Saleh). Gerik would seem to be hurt maximally by the lack of promotion items, but lv 20 Gerik is still pretty badass. Hat will be upset about the lack of access to Swordmaster bonuses, Audhulma etc. but he has room to grow and is solid combat from the get-go. L'Arachel will probably be close to useless due to a combination of class, lack of access to promotion and join time. Neimi is Neimi, and sometimes you need a little chip damage I guess. She's probably still better off than Knoll here so yeah.

One weakness I see here is the lack of early-early game units. Artur and Eirika will probably take a while to mop up Ch 4 and Eirika will still be soloing at Ch 2 (but that may not be as bad as I'm making it out to be).

2. Refa - Tana, Saleh, Garcia, Forde, Moulder, , Knoll

Tana is a flier of average availability and average awesomeness who probably isn't hurt too much by the no-promotion rule, assuming she isn't going to be relied upon for combat. I'd prefer Cormag if it weren't for the recruitment requirements. Saleh is pretty darned pwnsome. Garcia covers early-game combat pretty well, and Forde is a cav who's reasonably comparable to Kyle (a bit luckier, but otherwise pretty much a wash in terms of growths; Kyle's bases are probably somewhat better overall). It seems strange to me that the two were recruited so far apart.

Beyond that, it kinda goes downhill. Without promotion, Knoll basically loses the only thing he's good for, so it's not a big surprise he was picked last. Colm is a thief with less-than-great combat, and there's less to steal since promotion items aren't needed and there's lots of money available (I guess he'll still be going for stat boosters though). Moulder can become a warper without promoting, but Saleh will make him pretty much redundant, and can do the combat thing too. Of course, healing is never a bad thing, and while Saleh will eventually be able to do it as well, he'd rather be fighting or warping.

This should be fairly interesting to watch.

[Racer]

Don't mind me just trying to have fun *sobs*. Oh yeah and get this done, I just started drafting and I'm not some sort of prodigy like Desro or something. Also I'm not offended really

Edited December 9, 2011 by Racer

[zahlman]

It's all good, you picked yourself a good team at least :) Enjoy it while it lasts. The best competition is against yourself anyway IMO. Approached correctly, self-improvement is lots of fun, or at least rewarding. Try to do a little better every draft ;)

Edited December 9, 2011 by zahlman

[Racer]

Shit Orson is free time to restart chapter 5x

[Baldrick]

Endgame is why I wanted the lords promoted, even though by the rules, it probably should have been banned.

Chapter 2 is all axemen, so Eirika should be able to tank. What worries me is a lack of fliers. (Though it shouldn't hurt too much, I don't think there are any chapters like Ch 15 of FE6).

Kyle was probably a wrong choice. I was thinking of an easier time in 5x, and I thought Saleh would be safe since Duessel > Saleh and you wouldn't pick both. I'd forgotten about Phantom Ship which is why I picked Dozla instead.

[Refa]

Prologue- 3/3 turns

So I did the standard 3 turns clear, because although I'm aware of the 2 turn clear, I don't really want to RnG abuse to get it. If I lose by only one turn, maybe I'll change my ways in the future. Chances are though, Franz dude is going to rack up so many early game turns that NOONE (not even you, whoever picked Vanessa) will be able to compete. Maybe I'm being overly fatalistic, though. Eirika also procced some defense (and...skill and luck? Nothing too important) which is always nice. In a test playthrough (which was kind of inefficient, I went to Ch.12), MVP Eirika was a big help.

Chapter 1- 5/8 turns

Haha, Zalhman thought I was...competent. Doing an Eirika solo is a pain in the ass, but I DID finish this just one turn behind Racer, who had Gilliam, so is that well? Oh, and full disclosure, I RnG abused....once...so that Eirika could proc a 12% critical (well, she had two chances, to be fair). Doing this in five turns really just involved knowing that the AI would run away at very low HP, so a Soldier with moderate hit rates didn't have a chance to attack Eirika when she was facing the boss (also, a Fighter ran away earlier, but that was just wasted experience). Also, the soldier near Franz and Gilliam? Just moves around and doesn't attack unless you're right next to him before the enemy phase. Thanks to him, I managed to make sure that my undrafted units couldn't get attacked. Here are some pictures of my...impressive victory?

Oh...and here's what I'm working with here.

Look at that defence! Eirika should've gotten strength by now, but alas, the game wishes to make this draft a pain in the ass for me. Poor Eirika might not be able to ORKO the enemies in the next chapter! All of her other stats are shockingly average, so that's...pretty normal, I guess.

Chapter 2- 6/14 turns

So this was a pain in the ass to execute, although all of the hit rates and stuff were fairly concrete. Eirika actually procced a lot of crits, if she had procced two more, I could have finished the chapter in like 5 turns. But yeah, they were totally unnecessary. Eirika got some much needed strength and even more defense, so she's doing quite well. The real pain of this chapter was making sure Moulder got both of the villages, otheriwise the left bandit reinforcement would attack Moulder instead of making a beeline towards Eirika. I had to keep Franz and Seth in the back, because any other position and they would've been attacked. Same goes for Moulder after he rescued the village. THANK GOD we're allowed to have Vanessa recruit Ross (well...I would be able to anyways, considering he's undrafted for me), because I found out the hard way that that jackass runs towards the boss and friends, and obviously they're going to attack him and cost me a turn. So yeah, all in all, it went off pretty well.

[zahlman]

Endgame is why I wanted the lords promoted, even though by the rules, it probably should have been banned.

Chapter 2 is all axemen, so Eirika should be able to tank. What worries me is a lack of fliers. (Though it shouldn't hurt too much, I don't think there are any chapters like Ch 15 of FE6).

Well, Ch18 can really suck if you don't have mobility, and Ch20 will really suck if you can't Warp effectively... Myrrh might be able to just fly up to Morva and wtfpwn, but your lord still has to get there somehow.

Kyle was probably a wrong choice. I was thinking of an easier time in 5x, and I thought Saleh would be safe since Duessel > Saleh and you wouldn't pick both. I'd forgotten about Phantom Ship which is why I picked Dozla instead.

(I'm not Refa btw)

5x is like 1 chapter, and even if you're lazy like me and just let Ephraim wander his full move each turn while Orson pwns everything, you can't really take more than 10 turns, vs I'm pretty sure 7 is the theoretical minimum if you have all of them.

Also, you think Duessel > Saleh, but you didn't take Duessel given the chance... o_O

Edited December 9, 2011 by zahlman

[Racer]

Chapter 5x- 10 turns

One damn square away :(

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Chapter 6- 8 turns

Eirika is getting frickin' Strength blessed!

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I'm bored I'll continue this later

[Baldrick]

Well, Ch18 can really suck if you don't have mobility, and Ch20 will really suck if you can't Warp effectively... Myrrh might be able to just fly up to Morva and wtfpwn, but your lord still has to get there somehow.

I've got L'Arachel, her range won't be terrific but hopefully it will be enough.

(I'm not Refa btw)

5x is like 1 chapter, and even if you're lazy like me and just let Ephraim wander his full move each turn while Orson pwns everything, you can't really take more than 10 turns, vs I'm pretty sure 7 is the theoretical minimum if you have all of them.

Also, you think Duessel > Saleh, but you didn't take Duessel given the chance... o_O

I forgot Orson makes 5x a joke, since I usually strip him of weapons and relegate him to chest duty. At least Kyle has mobility for the rest of the game.

I meant "you" impersonally, as in it's something that would not be done by a good drafter. Which is why I ignored Duessel; I intended to choose Saleh next, and didn't want to hurt my units availability.

[zahlman]

kk, hope Dozla works out for you. Should be interesting to watch :)

I guess Ch20 can also be done with a good flier, but you don't have those either. It looks like you need 6 Warp range (everyone gets at least 5, but you'll need 12 Mag for 6 IIRC) to clear the thicket SE of the gate. Arcy-poo will hit the magic 12 Mag on average at 10/2, which... seems kinda difficult just because of her availability, although she'd already be spamming for staff rank, so idk. Too bad Unlock isn't spammable. She joins too late to spam Torch, so she's pretty much stuck with Barrier (and, like, Physic maybe?) I guess. Here's a prayer for a Mag blessing for her :)