[FE4] 'Lordless' draft redux

[Zasplach]

Well, teams are pretty much set and I like to think out loud, so here's what I'm thinking. Here's my team,(Sylvia [sylvia, Leen, Corple], Levin, Aless, Lex, Aira [Aira, Lakche, Skasaha], Azel, Janne, Hawk) minus whichever sub I end up with. Plus Alec, Noish, and Ardan all of whom I'll need to get use out of. Can't imagine Aassholio or Hannibal being much help, though I suppose Aassholio can kill wyverns and I have to keep Hannibal alive to get Holstey Corple, oh joy.

1st gen

Alec: pursuit is definitely a valuable skill, if he could proc strength a couple of times, I'll be in business, he's probably going to get Sigurd's steel sword for added damage.

Noish: Great skill set minus pursuit, if only his skill set would match up with his growths. Why bad skill and speed to proc charge and critical, why? Tempted to give him the pursuit ring and the brave sword, but I don't think he's going to breed, ugg, dilemmas.

Ardan: Obviously great pursuit ring and he'll definitely be of use in prologue and chapter one to mop up some enemies. We'll see.

Azel: My personal favorite unit in the game and a character that I need to ram to promotion to get that lovely horse, I hope he won't slow me down too much in the begging, I may need him to finish bosses.

Lex: Good in normal runs, need him to be A+ here, almost certainly gonna breed him with Arya, he's probably going to lead the charge in battles.

Arya: Overkill offense might actually be of some this time, if she can dodge attacks, I may crown her second best, she's still a damn footy, dancer is obviously my only savior.

Sylvia: Obviously queen on the 1st gen. I'm going to have to be extremely purposeful with her placements and she needs to become Levin's lover as quickly as possible and she needs those all important leg and knight ring. If only her son wasn't stuck to five movement and came in at such a low level. Why does she kill good man juice?

Levin: If Sylvia is the queen, then good ol' Levin must be the king. If I could kill Sigurd and take his wonderful horsey and his magic cape (obviously the thing that lets him seize castles), then Levin would solo the whole 2nd half of gen 1. Of course he's still a footy and he's my only staff user in all of Gen 1,so all the damage and most of my utility. I guess he's passing as many staves as he can to Corple.

It seems like the only pairings I should do are Levin-Sylvia and Lex-Arya, though maybe Noish is a better alternative. Eh, elite and defense for promotion and sturdiness just seem way to good.

Generation 2 is where it all gets dicey.

Larcei/Ulster: My only two drafted units for chapter six, Oifye's gonna have to help them, though the twins may be doing to chapter six what Serlis normally does, eating as much experience as possible and trying to get promotion; I'm gonna need them to be promoted for chapter 8 at the latest.

Janne: My primary healer for gen 2, probably gonna need to give her some sort of offensive weapon, obviously mend and return too, she's about as much utility as I get for gen 2.

Leen: Like her mother, she has to be my queen of the 2nd generation. Good placement and the all important knight and leg rings being the necessary tools to succeed.

Aless: Just like Levin, Sylvia's husband, Aless, Leen's husband, needs to be the king of ass-kicking. Really my only chance to kill Alvis and the sleep sword seems like the only alternative to straight critical and killing Julius.

Hawk: In terms of bases, he is Sety's superior, definitely going to stuff the sleep and the silence staff on to him, plus the Luthecia conversation and a magic ring may make it possible to sleep or silence all but the worst evil bosses.

Corple: I recently did Sylvia-Levin and it's lots of fun except for the fact that Corple is always stuck with stinkin' five movement. Stick him with the elite ring and the pursuit ring and dance him to the front and maybe there's a chance that he can be above average.

Some of those intermediary bosses in the end of the 2nd generation are going to be rough. And it looks like my 1st generation strategy to healing is going to have to be the arena and churches, thank the heavens for those things. It's going to be interesting. Don't know if I'll win, but I'll give it my best. Best of luck to everyone.

[Yojinbo]

I pick Sharlow and Linda.

Tristan, Amid and Daisy are left.

[Baldrick]

Diasy

[MartyTheDemonSlayer]

Tristan! Probably won't do anything, but at least this time he won't suffer as RNG bait! I guess I'll evaluate my team too.

Deidre [Deidre, Celice, Julia], Finn, Dew, Tiltyu [Tiltyu, Arthur, Tinny], Claude, Beowulf, Midir, Femina

Deidre: Haha, all you people have to deal with Fenrir in chapter 1. Also, fun fact: with four magic procs and a magic ring Deidre can one shot all the archers, mages, and sword fighters guarding Macklily castle and she has prayer.

Celice: No words can describe.

Julia: Staff bot, but she won't be able to do too much because I don't have any staff inheritance.

Finn: With Finn I think I will definitely pull ahead on turn counts until chapter 3 just because he's such an amazing mid game unit. He'll also do great in the second generation, and maybe if that hero lance gets enough kills he can stay useful until the end.

Dew: Now Celice gets inheritance.

Tilityu: Uh... she has kids?

Arthur: He will definitely be passed down the pursuit ring. Once Finn falls off he'll take his place as Celice's supporting mount.

Tinny: With A staffs, she will be my rescue staff user for the run. Obviously won't be anywhere near as good as a master knight, but I'm sure there'll be a few places where she can help a bit.

Claude: Can put Reptor to sleep and maybe with warp use I can cut down on the need for return rings in chapter 4 (and maybe have finn keep one to save a turn on Melgen in chapter 7?)

Beowulf: His bases are actually roughly equivalent to Sigurd's, too bad he comes so late and is sword locked. Anyways, nothing wrong with a mounted unit, you always need some of those.

Midir: He probably won't get the killer bow because RIP Jamka, but I'm sure I'll find plenty of stuff for him to do. He'll help the whole generation and he's mounted.

Femina: I mainly got her to berserk the Hel mage in the final chapter, but an 8 move return staff user is always solid.

Alec: His role will be feeding kills onto the light sword.

Noish: We'll see what he can do.

Arden: Best unit ever.

Tristan: We will see about you.

I think I'm more or less set for the whole game. My Gen1 early to mid game will be amazing, late game will be a bit weaker than other peoples' but I should be good. With Celice I know I'll obliterate early-mid game of Gen 2, and late game should still be fine with a 12 move lord. Also, I don't get a single holy weapon user until the end of chapter 10 :(

Edited March 17, 2015 by MartyTheDemonSlayer

[Yojinbo]

There is no unit named Diasy!

OK, time for a little team & strategy evaluation:

Gen 1:

Alec - he'll mostly collect kills for the light sword and do the usual Alec thing aka dodgetanking and chipping nicely in Prologue and Ch.1 and then becoming kinda worthless.

Noish - will take the pursuit ring and become Cuan's sucessor as the actual lord of this run after Ch.3. Will collect kills on the Hero Sword and marry Lachesis.

Ardan - He will definitely do stuff in the Prologue and Ch.1, maybe he'll fight some Orgahill pirates?

Cuan - he's gonna be Sigurd's substitute and will destroy bosses with the Hero Lance and lovercrithax until he leaves forever

Ethlin - so glad I got both her and cuan! She'll take Sigurd's Silver Sword and do her mountbot thing and be firstrate jail enemy bait

Holyn - will be useful for whenever I need foot units and will marry Briggid

Lachesis - will mostly be a staffbot actually, even after promotion but that's OK. She'll still be awesome, no doubt

Briggid - won't actually do a lot except marry holyn, pass down the Ichival and maybe nuke some bosses.

So I'm pretty happy with my gen 1 team. Early and mid game I have Cuan + Ethlin doing their thing, after Ch.3 Noish and Lachesis will take take over with some help of Holyn and Briggid to complete my endgame team. Gen 1 will be all about getting as big a lead as possible against Marty. Imo my team is better for the Prologue and Ch.1 as welll as Ch.4 and 5. Let's see what I can do here, I don't think my odds are that terrible. I basically have to make up for the turns that marty will be ahead mostly in Ch.7, 8 and 9.

Gen 2:

Delmud - Noish!Delmud with a Pursuit Ring is gonna dominate so hard

Oifaye - 50 kills on the Light Sword for some crithax in Ch.10 and Final should be managable, he'll be gdlk in all the other chapters anyway

Leaf - sup

Nanna - mountbot, staffbot, charismabot, siblingcritbot, lovercritbot, the best bot there ever was

Shanan - will mostly do bosskills and dominate whenever I need a foot unit

Patty - I'll actually need her because Nanna [and maybe Oifaye] will need at least one major money dump

Linda - should be promoted by Ch.9 where she can start to be a staffbot

Faval - Holyn!Faval with a Skill Ring and charismabots should help me a big deal against assholes like Arion or Alvis. And I don't actually have to bother with Assholello!

Sharlow - Dat Berserk Staff. Dat Elite Skill. Dat Staffbotting.

Hannibal - maybe I'll actually use him as a decoy if it helps me save turns :3

Altenna - I may actually get to recruit her without a dancer or a Ch.9 Rescue staff, we'll see.

No dancer, no Celice but Oifaye, Delmud, Nanna and Leaf should have no problem dealing with most enemy squads, Faval and Shanan will help out against bosses, Patty has my finances covered and Linda/Sharlow should be ready to use warp just in time. I just have to make sure that I won't fall behind marty too much before I can get the rescue staff in Ch.10. I think I have a pretty good shot overall despite having neither Celice, nor a dancer!

[MartyTheDemonSlayer]

Hmmm I'm actually interested to see if a 12 move (I'm assuming Leif gets the leg ring) rescue staff user and 6 move lord is faster or slower than a 12 move lord and a 6 move rescue staff user (Which won't be too great, but will still be useful for a few repositionings here and there.) I think either one could be better, though I'll lose turns on chapter 10 because I need the Tyrfing (it's my only way to kill Alvis).

[Yojinbo]

I'm not sure about what I'll do with the Leg Ring actually. Leaf will get a lot of road bonuses in Ch.10 and anything more than 10 mov would put him out of Rescue range anyway. I'll also shamelessly steal that rescue over the mountain!

[Zasplach]

Hmm, and I get butt face. At least he's a character at the beginning of gen2.

[Yojinbo]

Prologue: 12/12 turns

I avoided attacking on the first turn of this chapter because I know the RN will make you take a hit if you attack first. Alec and Noish charged directly south, Sigurd tagged along, Ardan baited the axe fighters away from the cavs. Cuan destroyed the wounded axe fighters on the way south and Ethlin healed wherever necessary. On turn 5 Cuan attacked the boss with the Javelin and even procced Continue but the second hit missed. I killed the boss on 6 turn either way, Sigurd seized and Midir joined.

To Jungby: 6 turns

I actually had Sigurd pick up the Speedring Village because I want him to obtain 40000 before gen 1 ends so he can pass down the leg ring to celice. I ignored all the remaining enemies and went straight for evans castle. Since I had picked Ethlin, Cuan was always at full health, could charge way ahead and reach the axe fighter behind the brigde pretty soon. Midir got sacrificed along the way which may not have been necessary but I didn't care. The AI has the strange habit of occasionally attacking Alvis who didn't get to talk to Sigurd, sadly. The best part though was that Cuan cleanly one hit KO'd Gerrard with a Steel Lance lover crit which saved me some crucial turns [and a lot of problems]. Seriously, having Ethlin AND Cuan in the Prologue is just godlike.

Edit: And I even wasted a turn on that one village, I hope I won't end up paying for it >-<

To Evans: 6 turns

How do you take pics with the ZSNES emulator?

Edited March 17, 2015 by Yojinbo

[MartyTheDemonSlayer]

Prologue: 13/13 turns

It kind of sucks to be a turn behind already, but I doubt I can do better without a healer, and I'll have plenty of chances to make up for it later.

To Jungby: 6 turns

Just charging forwards and doing as well as possible.

To Evans: 7 turns

Alvis helped out a lot and whoever could chipped in. Finn got the speed ring.

Edit (I also completed chapter 1, I'm on break so I have lots of time)

Chapter 1: 25/38 turns

I can't remember the exact turn breakdown of each castle, but my god is Finn a beast. With prayer and a steel lance he can obliterate so much, and he's currently sitting at level 14. The steel lance currently has 34 kills on it as well, so idk, maybe that will come in handy on Femina or someone later? Alec is also doing quite nicely (he has more strength than Noish!) and Dew has 36k gold. The first cash dump will go to Deidre so that she can buy the magic ring to one shot all the Macklily castle guards, and that money will end up on Sigurd in the end anyways via give. I wonder how you guys will deal with Sandima without silence. Having to slow down and use the church to beat Gandolf was annoying though, it probably cost me about two turns.

Edited March 17, 2015 by MartyTheDemonSlayer

[Zasplach]

Prologue 14/14

Well, starting the best game ever, again. Is it bad that I read all the convos? I probably should limit that this time. Yon has a good strategy not attacking on the 1st turn, but damn, I'm going to attack anyway. Full steam to Jungby. Gandolf cheating with that crit. Charge straight to south to the castle. Have Lex and Azel charge southwest, get to the castle, Cuan procs continue with a Javelin on Gerrard, finish him off with Noish. Fun fact about Jungby, clearing it doesn't clear enemies from the map. No heals is going to be a pain.

Jungby: 6 turns

EP turn 6, first sacrifice to the enemy, Midir, whatever. Alec takes the speed ring out of necessity, probably going to end up on Azel when it can. Had to feed lots of kills to Cuan, unfortuentaly, no Sigurd is a real pain in the ass. Gonna definetly have be a more patient player, you think you're good at something, and then you make it hard, ugg. Got Dimaggio finally when Azel could dodge a hand axe attack and Cuan finished him off. And lol, in 2 levels Ardan alrady has gained two levels of magic, reclass to mage?

Evans: 8 turns

2 turns behind already, gonna have to be good with them dancers.

Name Level HP st mg sk sp lk df rs rings

Lex 8(48) 37 13 0 10 12 9 12 0

Azel 3(71) 32 0 11 9 10 2 2 6

Alec 5(33) 35 9 0 11 11(+5) 6 8 0 speed

Ardan 5(45) 38 15 2 5 4 3 14 0

Noish 5(94) 34 13 0 8 9 5 9 0

Edited March 18, 2015 by Zasplach

[MartyTheDemonSlayer]

Ouch, your Chapter 1 team doesn't look too hot either. At least by Chapter 2 if Lex promotes you should be good.

Edited March 18, 2015 by MartyTheDemonSlayer

[Zasplach]

yeah, I'm afraid I'll have to rely on Arya for damage in chapter one. I think with more patience I could have cut one turn from the prologue, but it took three hours on a day off from work and I was pretty much just wanting to blow my brains out waiting for Azel to finally dodge that hand ax throw, so whatever; I think it's mostly a competition among you all, my goal is to finish as quickly as I can, I'll be hard pressed to win, but I won't give up.

[MartyTheDemonSlayer]

I mean, Arya isn't terrible in Chapter 1, she has good movement in the forests. I advise you try and bait her to move towards the next castle before you recruit her, that will probably save a turn. I'm curious how much not being able to silence Sandima will change.

Edited March 18, 2015 by MartyTheDemonSlayer

[Zasplach]

Good advice. Thanks. I think I'll have to send footies through the forest to protect myself and then astra probably.

[Baldrick]

with four magic procs and a magic ring Deidre can one shot all the archers, mages, and sword fighters guarding Macklily castle and she has prayer.

Yeah, I was just thinking your first pick wasn't broken enough \_o_/

Prologue 14/14

OMG this is so much easier with Cuan. For those of you who don't know, last time I had to draw Alvis over to finish the last boss for me.

Chapter 1 30/44

This is where lack of Cuan/Ethlin/Fin/Lex really hurt me (it'll hurt a lot more in chapter 2, though). At least I had Aideen to tempt Ayra a good distance away from the castle (Fun fact: She procced Astra but Aideen managed to dodge 5 out of 6 hits. Thank you based forest). Then it was a matter of hauling Aideen over to Jamka, who can deal with the non-silenced Sandima with a little rigging.

[Zasplach]

Then it was a matter of hauling Aideen over to Jamka, who can deal with the non-silenced Sandima with a little rigging.

Sweet sweet Jamka revenge. Man, we're flying. I guess I should go see what pain and suffering fun chapter one has for me.

[MartyTheDemonSlayer]

Didn't you also kill Sandima with Jamka last draft too? What's with you always picking him?

[General Horace]

Jamka's really not too bad to recruit in a draft like this, and the killer bow is REALLY good.

Jamka kinda sucks though.

[MartyTheDemonSlayer]

Yeah, I guess when Sigurd can't kill everything Jamka isn't too hard to recruit.

[Baldrick]

Didn't you also kill Sandima with Jamka last draft too? What's with you always picking him?

From a personal standpoint, he's an archer with good stats who I've always had to kill off before because he's too dangerous to keep alive and takes too much to recruit.

And like Horace said, any turns lost by recruiting him in lordless is made up by him killing Sandima reliably. Especially without Deidre.

[Zasplach]

Chapter 1: 33/47

That was the most fun I've ever had, I'm thinking I need to through my laptop somewhere, oh man that took a TONNNNNNNNNNN of rigging. Everything was fine from Evans to Marpha. Genoa was like 8 and Marpha 10, not fast, but alright, led Arya far enough, not horrible clearing levels either, wish Lex would get his damned brave ax at the beginning , but no, I have to run and get it off of that stupid peninsula. So I'm cruising through the spirit forest, once again, not fast ended at like turn 26, then SANDIMA, I realize I've never beat him without that silence staff, wow.

After lots of thought, I realize my only strategy is the bait-and-switch. So Sigurd runs off to the left without any weapons, drags the force to the west while Arya tracks through the forest just south of him. With some abuse, I was able to rig a position where Arya was positioned still alive, thankfully she got that slim sword, was able to rig an astra kill on Sandima, keeping Sigurd alive. Then I got one last godly astra to clear out the space for Sigurd to ram the castle and Lex gets his brave ax. Lol, already nine behind too. I'm gonna need dancing to help me out a lot. Gen 2 is going to be a real bitch.

Levels at the end of the chapter. I think this is officially the highest level I've ever got Ardan.

Name Level HP st mg sk sp lk df rs rings

Lex 16(82) 44` 17 0 11 13 11 17 0

Azel 8(5) 37 1 15 10(+5) 13 3 4 6 skill

Alec 10(25) 35 13 1 14 13(+5) 9 9 1 speed

Ardan 8(46) 38 17 2 6 5 3 16 0

Noish 9(44) 37 15 0 8 9 6 9 1

Arya 10(10) 37 12 0(+5) 19 19 5 8 1 magic

[General Horace]

I almost think Ethlin should be free in these. It really really sucks not having any healing early on, especially if you have units like Lex who are going to get hit.

[Zasplach]

I almost think Ethlin should be free in these. It really really sucks not having any healing early on, especially if you have units like Lex who are going to get hit.

It does, but I got it to work, I'm behind, but I don't mind. Win or lose, it's fun to do for the first time.

[MartyTheDemonSlayer]

I feel that the biggest problem with a lordless draft will always be balancing early game Making units free for certain chapters is all well and good, but the issue is that this reduces the benefit of drafting that unit in the first place. I think a good compromise would be reduced penalties (like, if you want to use Ethlin in a castle in chapter 1 you only lose one turn instead of three. )

Edited March 18, 2015 by MartyTheDemonSlayer