Anyone start the game on Hard mode first time through?

[Velvet]

I'm just wondering if anyone started Awakening on hard mode first time through?

What are your thoughts and strategies to get through the chapters?

I'm personally having a hard time trying to finish the game. It could also be that I just don't have as much time to play games.

However, I usually resort to just playing the maps to get a feel for the environment and enemies then resetting to play through it again.

Also, I usually play defensive position and bring limited number of characters.

I also find it hard to level up characters that aren't used as much.

Lots and lots of resets...

[Othin]

Nah, and I'm glad I waited until my second run.

What's your team, levels, and progress?

[luchinania]

I did, and I for the most part I found the difficulty perfect the first time. But now I stared a new game and I'm finding it a bit easy(I wish there was a difficulty between hard and lunatic) since I know what works and I'm more familiar with the new mechanics.

I guess my tips are to use double, keep your units together, and don't be afraid to use stat potions and forges.

[Othin]

Yeah, it's really strange. FE13 left out Maniac compared to FE12, and you can feel the huge gap between Hard and Lunatic: there's something that's supposed to be there but isn't.

It's a real shame, because if Maniac was available between those two, I'd probably use it for most of my future playthroughs.

Edited June 18, 2012 by Othin

[Velvet]

I'm still on Chapter 7 when Tiamo first joins.

I'm going to use a spoiler if anyone is afraid of reading something they don't want to...

[spoiler=] Chapter 7 has a bunch of Wyverns, Axe soldiers, and Bow soldiers.

Tiamo joins on turn 3. Reinforcement Wyverns spawn on either turn 6 or 7.

My teams usually consist of...

Krom - Level 12

MU - Level 12

Liz - Level 10

Sumia - Level 8

Miriel - Level 8

Frederick - Level 3

Sometimes I also bring along...

Velvet - Level 7

Ronku - Level 7

Mariabel - Level 5

I usually have to use Fred to scout ahead and tank everything to weaken the enemies. After, I would let the rest of the team finish off the weakened enemies.

I feel like Cavaliers are really weak and inefficient. It's also fairly hard to train weaker characters.

Do you guys ever just fight random map encounters to grind it bit? I don't really like to level up that way since, I never get good stat ups.

I'm probably going to have to use DLC maps to level up weaker characters and get supports later since they can be replayed.

[Velvet]

Okay, I was able to finish Chapter 7... so onto Chapter 8.

My MU had some random dodges and critical activations that saved me.

Decided to use Velvet this time around instead of trying to level up weaker characters.

[cheetah7071]

You've already passed chapter 7, but as a general bit of advice, when there's reinforcements you can't deal with, try beating the chapter before they even show up. That's my lunatic strategy for chapter 7.

[Dark Sage]

Yeah, it's really strange. FE13 left out Maniac compared to FE12, and you can feel the huge gap between Hard and Lunatic: there's something that's supposed to be there but isn't.

It's a real shame, because if Maniac was available between those two, I'd probably use it for most of my future playthroughs.

Yeah I wonder what the difficulty would be like if Maniac was in there. FE12's Manaic mode was very difficult, and more difficult than most FEs. It had Lunatic's AI, with the enemies being slightly weaker but still formidable and had a few less enemies. Perhaps FE13's Maniac would've been the same.

That reminds me, is there a difference in the AI between Hard and Lunatic in FE13? Because there definitely is in FE12 between Normal/Hard and Maniac/Lunatic.

[Velvet]

I always try to finish the chapter before reinforcements show up...

I think the main thing is that I'm afraid to just charge in which wastes turns.

I'm always waiting for enemies to attack first.

[arvilino]

Yeah I wonder what the difficulty would be like if Maniac was in there. FE12's Manaic mode was very difficult, and more difficult than most FEs. It had Lunatic's AI, with the enemies being slightly weaker but still formidable and had a few less enemies. Perhaps FE13's Maniac would've been the same.

That reminds me, is there a difference in the AI between Hard and Lunatic in FE13? Because there definitely is in FE12 between Normal/Hard and Maniac/Lunatic.

Yeah, I noticed a difference in Lunatic(in chapter 18). If an enemy can't attack your unit from say 1 range and they are covering a spot where an other enemy could attack from they'll move out of the way if there's an enemy in range that could attack from the spot they were initially standing on.

It sort of suprised me because I had Frederick at a chokepoint and he was pretty much safe until a Swordmaster moved out of the way to let an enemy Sage attack and kill him.

Edited June 18, 2012 by arvilino

[Westbrick]

Lunatic units will also attack in waves, so you can no longer pick individual enemies off by edging just into range.

[Othin]

There are times when you can get away with it. Most of Ch16's enemies take a while to start moving on their own, and some enemies can be lured out in the first couple of turns in Ch11 without setting off the others.

The rest of the time, though, if one's charging, so are the rest.

[Polaris]

So it's like FE4 in that regard (a wave o'dudes coming at you)?

Does the AI screw itself over, in order to get a potshot at you, like it used to (PoR's Strange Lands map comes to mind)?

[Dark Sage]

Lunatic units will also attack in waves, so you can no longer pick individual enemies off by edging just into range.

Ah, so it takes a cue from FE12 Lunatic. Good to know.

In FE12 Lunatic, it was reported that enemies go after people that they can do the most damage to. This also includes potential damage (aka critical hits), though if they are in range, they put killing a weakened unit as their top priority.

Paperblade explains it better I think:

I've had enemies attack MU (who has 5 Defense, the lowest on my team) over Feena (who has nearly 20 less HP, but 10 Defense). I've also had them attack Minerva (9 Defense as a Bishop) over Feena and seen Snipers suicide onto my own despite there being people with 1 range weapons equipped.

Which makes me think the priority goes

Kill > do more damage > take counter (?)

Edit: I also noticed that enemy Snipers like to attack Sirius (who they have a small amount of crit on due to his poor luck and lack of supports) over Caeda (who has capped Luck and a Marth/MU support) despite Caeda having less Defense. Perhaps it's potential damage?

Is the AI with FE13 Lunatic's enemies kind of like that? And are there any "traps" like there are in FE12?

Edited June 19, 2012 by Tyrant Sage

[Othin]

Hmm, hard to say. I'll have to poke around and take a look, but it's definitely possible. The enemies are usually so dangerous that I can't leave weaker units around to see multiple possibilities.

What sorts of traps? The one thing that comes to mind is Ch9. The group of enemies on the left part of the map all move from the start, but the others remain stationary. On Turn 6, reinforcements appear from the starting point and from forts near the boss, and every enemy other than the boss starts charging at once, but this will also happen if you enter the range of one of those enemies, and the reinforcements appear sooner in that case.

That's the only time so far I've seen reinforcements with variable spawn times, but I've seen plenty of other tricky AI situations. Ch2 stands out with similarly having the enemies on the lower half of the map attack you from the start while the ones on the upper half stay still. Once you clear out the first set of enemies, the others wait until you enter not just one of their ranges but two of their ranges, then they all start charging, including the boss, who's stationary on other difficulty levels, but extremely dangerous here.

Edited June 19, 2012 by Othin

[arvilino]

Gaiden 6 has a sort of trap aswell. There's two groups of fliers that will approach from the top and bottom Left of the map to the right, with enemies in the "Fort"(it uses the same map as Fire Emblem Gaiden) appearing to remain stationary. Until turn 2 at which point the fliers approach the starting location where some of them start to come after you at the same time.

Sort of like FE12's reinforcements, chapters with traps like this and chapter 9 (and chapter 7 if you don't route it quickly enough) attempt to sandwich you between or more sides enemies.

Edited June 19, 2012 by arvilino

[Dark Sage]

Interesting trick there. I guess it does have a lot of FE12's traps. I was thinking of a trap like P-8's to be honest, where if you kill the left hunter, the Silver Axe brigand that's behind a wall near the starting point will be in range to attack, and not only will you pull it, you'll also end up triggering the two mages further south to move. If you do it too early, you'll get overwhelmed and destroyed by the enemies. Or in Chapter 3 where if you pull the dracoknights in range of the starting point, the dracoknights in the mountatins will go after Palla and kill her unless you move Arran or Luke or whoever further west in a certain spot. Those kinds of traps and it appears that it has some of those too.

How do latejoining units like Basilio and Flavia perform on this mode? I remember that in FE12, pretty much everyone who joined after a certain point was unusable (except like, Katarina, but only due to staff rank). Unlike that game, characters do get Lunatic bonuses, which should help them out somewhat but I'm wondering if it's enough for them.

[Othin]

I guess there's some stuff like that, but it tends to be a bit different since enemies tend to get triggered in packs instead of moving one by one. The one thing that comes to mind for that is Ch11, where enemies spawn from various forts until Turn 8. You want to get control of some of the forts to stop the enemies, but while you can get the ones on the sides and some of the ones in the middle for a while, one of the middle forts is within Gangrel's attack range, so standing on it gets you not only ripped to shreds by him but also puts you in range of other enemies. I assume it would trigger the whole pack of enemies around him, and you really don't want to do that. I wound up waiting until they all charged on their own and luring the others away while MU dueled Gangrel, but in the meantime, I couldn't do anything to stop enemies showing up from that particular fort. And of course there was nothing to do about the forts at the bottom near Gangrel, either.

Lunatic bonuses definitely help. Henry still has issues, but at least he has a ranged attack and can crit stuff. Sairi and Serge just barely work out as competent for assisting with main-field fighting: they can't act as a frontline, but they can at least do more than Double support. And at this point, that's still really valuable. I haven't gotten Basilio and Flavia yet, but I imagine they're extremely valuable when they join, as well. At this point, most of my team just isn't catching up, and I know even a lot of the units I'm using will never get as good as Basilio and Flavia are when they join.

Edited June 19, 2012 by Othin

[Velvet]

Finally finished Gaiden 2 and talked to Anna.

I found this chapter actually pretty okay. I was able to be the one on the attack without getting overwhelmed.

Pegasus Knights, Sumia and Tiamo, were really helpful with traversing the forest.

Some characters are starting to lag behind in terms of levels...

I'm starting to just bring lower level characters and attaching them to my main attackers so they can support and hopefully get a bit of experience.

[arvilino]

Interesting trick there. I guess it does have a lot of FE12's traps. I was thinking of a trap like P-8's to be honest, where if you kill the left hunter, the Silver Axe brigand that's behind a wall near the starting point will be in range to attack, and not only will you pull it, you'll also end up triggering the two mages further south to move. If you do it too early, you'll get overwhelmed and destroyed by the enemies. Or in Chapter 3 where if you pull the dracoknights in range of the starting point, the dracoknights in the mountatins will go after Palla and kill her unless you move Arran or Luke or whoever further west in a certain spot. Those kinds of traps and it appears that it has some of those too.

How do latejoining units like Basilio and Flavia perform on this mode? I remember that in FE12, pretty much everyone who joined after a certain point was unusable (except like, Katarina, but only due to staff rank). Unlike that game, characters do get Lunatic bonuses, which should help them out somewhat but I'm wondering if it's enough for them.

I'd say it's the reverse of FE12 when it comes to late joiners. There's not enough EXP to go to all of your early party members and they start weak that you'll have to go out of your way to get anyone who isn't Krom,MU,Liz,Frederick EXP but your later joining ones(especially when they come with the bonuses) from Ronku(excluding Richt) onwards all perform well enough to be useful several chapters after recruitment.

Basillo and Flavia in Lunatic start extremely well, their bonuses all round put them higher than your average unit will expect to be by the time they join.

[MrNugent]

How does the hard mode in FE13 compared to H1 of FE12?