[FE4] 'Lordless' draft redux

[Yojinbo]

Chapter 1: 25/37 turns

Really wanted to squeeze another turn out of this chapter to increase my lead against Marty but as good Cuan + Ethlin is, they can't beat Fin + Midir in this chapter so I guess I can't complain about a 25 turn clear. I just wanna know what you were thinking when you let Horace pick Cuan, Fin AND Midir last time around >_<

Cuan and Noish cleared the arena, Alec, Ardan and Ethlin went as far as they could. I charged down south and managed to figure out a good constellation on turn 2. The enemy squad charged at me in a way that left a path to the south open so instead of bothering with them I just advanced down south, had Alec distract Aira, Cuan kill the boss in two turns and Sigurd seize on turn 5. Ardan did a lot less than I expected him to.

5 turns to Genoa castle

I nearly forgot that I have to recruit Aira in order to obtain the Hero Sword, I don't think it actually cost me a turn to recruit her though. Reaching Marpha castle took me longer than I hoped because the enemy squads are fairly large and there isn't as much open space as on the way to Genoa. It was pretty straightforward though, Cuan hits like a fucking truck, Alec chips and Noish finishes off. Cuan of course killed Gandolf and then charged as far ahead as possible into the forest. It's a pity I didn't get to pick up any villages with Sigurd, at this rate I may not be able to give him the leg ring. I hope the Villages north of Madino castle in Ch.3 will make something possible.

8 turns to Marpha castle

Cuan and Noish threw javelins at the bandits, Alec finished off or chipped wherever needed and Ethlin was Ethlin. I killed Jamka and got out of the forest in a reasonble amount of time, Ethlin returned the Social Knights for Exp. Like on the way to Genoa castle I tried to spread out the firepower of the enemy squad that guards Verdane castle so that Cuan could sneak past them and kill Sandima while Sigurd lurked in seizing range. I had to rig a continue proc at the arena with Alec. I kinda wanna avoid doing it in this run but I really wanted the 25 turn clear and I hate losing turns because of bosses so I went for it anyway. I hope I won't have to do it again [but may need to against Macbeth].

12 turns to Verdane castle

I'll post stats after Ch.2, which I may get to do today

Edited March 18, 2015 by Yojinbo

[MartyTheDemonSlayer]

Oh dear god not Macbeth. I still remember having to rig two consecutive sibling crits on him. I just hope Finn has the speed to double him (yeah... I should probably look into that before I start chapter 2)

[General Horace]

Light sword Alec is honestly pretty good against him, although he won't have the magic ring if you're giving it to Deirdre. Fin still does pretty decent damage to him at least.

[MartyTheDemonSlayer]

... Alright so as I was playing chapter two, something weird happened. For some reason the ballista near Macklily just would not attack Deidre, even if she was the only unit standing in their range. This is actually a huge problem, because without the ballista there's no way to knock her into prayer range to obliterate the units guarding Macklily. Does anyone have any idea why this might be happening?

[Baldrick]

My first thought was maybe it had 0 battle accuracy on her even without Prayer, but that's likely not it since Aura is so heavy.

Do the other ballistae attack?

[General Horace]

I assume you've tried burning RN's?

But i've never heard of this happening. Obviously you rigged Deirdre's defence and she takes 0 damage

[Baldrick]

I assume you've tried burning RN's?

I don't know, maybe he's sick of it by now. I know I would feel... burnt out.

But yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if the ballista randomly decided not to attack.

Edited March 20, 2015 by Baldrick

[MartyTheDemonSlayer]

Even if I had done that there's the one damage mechanic

No RN's are used. But for some reason if another unit goes within range of the ballista they suddenly start acting normally. Sorry Alva.

Edited March 20, 2015 by MartyTheDemonSlayer

[Yojinbo]

I should be able to do at least Ch.2 today.

Edit: Everything is going completely wrong for me wtf. This is so frustrating -.-

Edited March 20, 2015 by Yojinbo

[Baldrick]

As expected of chapter 2!

[MartyTheDemonSlayer]

Chapter 2: 28/66 turns

10 turns to Heirhein

I think this was the best I could do without healing or more strong units. Pretty much just a straight charge.

6 turns to Anphony

Hero lance Fin is ridiculous. He massacred everything. Pretty much the only issue was making sure that Beowulf didn't suicide on Fin. Thankfully Alec could one round the free knights (he has 16 strength at level 16... I'm not sure how this happened.)

7 turns to Macklily

Magic ring Deidre massacred everything. It was a bit tricky to get prayer to work out (Deidre's evade is so bad that she needs to be knocked down to one or two health to dodge the units guarding macklily reliably), but everything went well. Unfortunately I couldn't go any faster because Sigurd had to take the long way back.

5 turns to Agusty

Fin cleaned up with ridge support from Midir. Thankfully Midir gained enough strength to four shot zyne, so I didn't have to deal with the knight slayer. Fin also was strong enough to one round everything including the armor knights with a javelin (26 strength ftw) which probably saved a few turns. With prayer arena abuse Deidre managed to win the arena, and also warped Beowulf back at the last moment to stop Fury from killing me.

Edit: I hope that Deidre gives Celice a point of magic. Being able to one round the axe knights with the light sword would be nice.

Edited March 21, 2015 by MartyTheDemonSlayer

[Yojinbo]

Ouch, I don't think I can do it faster than 28 turns. This is starting to look bad for me =/

[MartyTheDemonSlayer]

For some reason I just really feel like making a lot of progress today. I wouldn't be surprised if I also finish chapters 4/5.

Chapter 4: 19/85 turns

I actually finished in 16 turns, but I decided to use Aideen to warp, incurring a 3 turn penalty.

To Madino: 5 turns

I actually could have 4 turned this if I had another 9 move unit (alec had to deal with the cross knights), which is unfortunate, but I think if I gave Midir a money dump for the elite ring I might not be able to get Celice all the stuff he needs, Unfortunate, but was the best I could do.

To Silvail: 6 turns (I may be wrong?)

Alec dealt with the cross knights with the light sword. Fin returned then sold the return ring to Sigurd. Etc.

To Orgahil: 5 + 3 turns

I used Aideen to warp Sigurd and Fin over, Beowful with the hero sword massacred the pirates. He also got the strength boost village before, so now he has 21 strength + 5 because of the power ring. He will be a good unit. Noish is also really far behind, I doubt I'll get him promoted. Thankfully Beowulf has such high strength I don't think it'll matter.

I gave Fin a shield ring (doubt I'll need it), the hero lance and steel lance, a javelin, and the return ring. The logic behind that is that if Fin has the return ring he can save turns by clearing Melgen out before Celice gets there. I also don't need it anymore because if I just have Claude meet units midway between Thove and whatever castle you own in Chapter 4 I probably won't need the return ring.

Edited March 21, 2015 by MartyTheDemonSlayer

[Yojinbo]

At this rate I'll probably have to take a penalty in Ch.2. I'm really starting to see why Deidre would be such a good pick before Mackily.

[General Horace]

I think the only reason Deirdre is a good pick is because of Celice. It probably would have been better for her to grab warp and send Sigurd somewhere instead of having her actually fight.

[MartyTheDemonSlayer]

I doubt it actually, at least for my team. With five move there's no way she would have been in position to warp Sigurd anywhere, and if I had left Macklily to Finn he might have gotten choked up on 1-2 range units. I'm not sure though, maybe he had the speed to double them with the javelin.

[General Horace]

SIgurd seized Anphony on turn 16, even Deirdre and her horrible movement can make it there by turn 17, Warping to the first castle you seize (I forget the name) gets you a few spaces closer to the action too.

All your other units needed to do (like Alec/Noish) was lure the mercs/archers/mages away, Sigurd can plow through all the enemies when he gets there.

Edited March 21, 2015 by General Horace

[MartyTheDemonSlayer]

I'd still need someone to deal with all the onrushing cavalry and the knight blocking the choke, since Sigurd can't attack.Also if I went at that pace Finn would either not get to promote or lag behind, which might cost turns in the long run. I think that with most teams it would be best to use her for warping, but I'm not sure it would help for me.

[Yojinbo]

if I had left Macklily to Finn he might have gotten choked up on 1-2 range units. I'm not sure though, maybe he had the speed to double them with the javelin.

Well at least that's happening for me with Cuan.

[Yojinbo]

So I don't know what you guys are doing but I'm about to give up on this. The only way I can get a turncount under 32 is if I use Deidre which would give me a 7-turn penalty. It really isn't as fun to do as I was hoping it would be and I wanna focus on my LTC run from now on so yeah.

[Baldrick]

You could always try for second place. But yeah, as a comp it was really over before drafting finished.

But I could have sworn you can't warp to Nodion? Oh you're talking about Heirhein. nvm.

Edited March 24, 2015 by Baldrick

[MartyTheDemonSlayer]

Why a 7 turn penalty? Even if a unit has holy blood don't they only incur a 3 turn penalty if they aren't using a holy weapon?

I think that draftable Celice is an alright idea, but you'd probably have to add a rule banning Dew from money dumping Sigurd. With only Deidre's funds and a few villages Celice would get some inheritance, but probably not enough to destroy right out the gate. That might be balanced? Early game would still be terrible though...

Edited March 24, 2015 by MartyTheDemonSlayer

[General Horace]

you can warp to nodion if you kill lachesis and reseize it

if Yojimbo isn't going to finish I might run through with his team for fun

[Yojinbo]

Not sure if it's a good idea, you're probably gonna make me look like a scrub. Yeah, you can go ahead and play with my team if you like though it seems like Marty and I were the only ones who actually seemed to do stuff, no offense to the other guys.

I'm still not entirely sure how to balance an FE4 draft. I think 4 players was already kind of pushing it though. I think draftable Celice wasn't a bad idea and that Fin is a supremely powerful pick that will help Marty to a similar extent as Celice does, if not more. Sigurd being banned is actually pretty much the most frustrating thing ever as it seems like a lot of early game was specifically balanced around Sigurd being present. As much sense as banning him makes, it kinda skews things against whomever didn't get either Fin or Cuan.

[General Horace]

I think normal FE4 drafts are more balanced than Lordless ones for sure, Cuan and Fin are still valuable picks (albeit less strong) but mothers and pairing in general matter a lot more and every slot actually has a lot of value whereas you kinda are just screwed with fourth pick here.

One might think Sigurd just makes gen 1 units irrelevant, but he really doesn't. Cuan saves a turn in the prologue/Chapter 1, Fin helps a ton in chapter 2, and staff users early on (Ethlin, Aideen, Lachesis) help move people around, and Sylvia obviously does her thing. I think even having promoted Dew saves a turn or 2 in chapter 4 as well. Fury saves a turn in chapter 5 i'm pretty sure as well by killing a priest blocking Sigurd fom seizing Phinora. If you do certain pairings like Azel/Aideen and have Lachesis, it saves turns too. Here Cuan (and once Fin gets the Hero lance, Fin), Killer Bow!Midir and HeroAxe!Lex are the only units that do significant damage to bosses and are mounted, so if you don't have any of those units, you just have no chance. Sigurd's just always there for a reliable bosskiller that everyone has and needs.

I haven't done a vanilla FE4 draft in a while though. Last pick or first pick is slightly weaker than the other two picks probably though.

People tend to rarely finish drafts anyway. I'm sure Baldrick will post progress eventually though, he usually finishes.

Edited March 24, 2015 by General Horace