Eirika's Route HM LTC <=65 Turns

[ruadath]

Although at this point it probably seems like I'm doing too many different playthroughs simultaneously, I've watched some of GeneralHorace's 66 Turn LTC of this game and successfully managed to improve his Chapter 2 from a 4-turn to a 3-turn via extensive RNG manipulation (combined with strategy; it was not at all trivial to 3-turn the chapter, even with control of the RNG). I would be happy to post my strategy for the chapter if anyone is interested and will attempt to get videos of the rest of the challenge up.

[ruadath]

Since I can't offer you a video for Chapter 2, I decided to at least make a post with screenshots and the general strategy:

Starting Stats:

Name:     Lv.XP HP STR SKL SPD LCK DEF RES
Seth:      1.98 BASE
Eirika:    1.75 BASE
Franz:     2.08 21  8   6   8   2   6   1
Gilliam:   4.39
Vanessa:   1.00 BASE
Moulder:   3.00 BASE

The strategy for the Prologue and Chapter 1 to get these stats was taken directly from General Horace's run, which can be found here; the only difference is that I mainpulated Franz level to give him an extra point in Skill, which turned out to be unnecessary.

Preparations: Franz trades his Iron Lance to Vanessa in exchange for her Javelin

Now for the actual playthrough! Displayed below is the starting position:

Turn 1: First we manipulate the RNG and then fly Vanessa directly south onto the fortress above the bandit. She double attacks with the Slim Lance, criticaling the second time, while the bandit misses, leaving him with 8 HP.

Turn 1 (cont.): We then maneuver the rest of the troops like so

Franz is left to RNG manipulate before ending his turn, at the spot marked by the arrow.

Enemy Turn 1: The bandit Vanessa attacked hits her for 7 damage; she counters with first a miss and then a critical to finish him off. On the other side of the screen a bandit attacks Ross, missing him. During the other phase, Ross and Garcia reduce his HP to 5.

Turn 2: More RNG abuse. Moulder moves above Vanessa and heals her. Vanessa then flies onto the tile north of the boss and attacks (crits) him for 15 damage with the Iron Lance. He misses.

Turn 2 (cont.): Everyone else moves like so; Seth visits the west village for a Red Gem before ending his turn. RNG abuse occurred before that.

Enemy Turn 2: The bandit east of Vanessa attacks her, missing. She counters for 5 damage. The boss also attacks Vanessa; they both miss. A bandit attacks Ross, missing; on the counterattack and subsequent attack on the other phase, Ross dispatches him, and Garcia attacks the enemy archer.

Two enemy reinforcements appear on the west side of the map before Turn 3:

Turn 3: RNG abuse. Then Eirika moves next to the bandit who moved off the mountains and kills him with a critical. She levels up too.

Turn 3 (cont.): More RNG abuse. Then Franz kills the reinforcement below him with a Javelin critical.

Turn 3 (cont.): Even more RNG abuse. Vanessa critical-kills the boss with the Iron Lance. She levels up too, gaining HP, Str, Skl, Spd, but I don't have a screenshot.

Turn 3 (cont.): Gilliam visits the village for an Elixir. Moulder heals Eirika the HP she got from her level up. Seth RNG abuses before moving onto the forest east of Franz.

Enemy Turn 3: The remaining bandit on the mountain attacks Vanessa, hitting her for the first time, and gets killed by the ensuing critical. It is important she got the Str during her last level up, or he would have survived! The remaining reinforcment charges Seth and gets slaughtered by his Steel Sword. Seth gets a poor level up, which I don't have a screenshot of here. Garcia and Ross finish off the enemy archer for victory!

We end the chapter with the following stats:

Name:     Lv.XP HP STR SKL SPD LCK DEF RES
Seth:      2.02 31  14  13  12  14  12  8
Eirika:    2.12 17  5   9   10  6   4   1
Franz:     2.41 21  8   6   8   2   6   1
Gilliam:   4.39 BASE
Vanessa:   2.84 18  6   8   12  4   6   5
Moulder:   3.22 BASE

(Hmm... despite resizing the images on my PC, I can't seem to make them any bigger in the post... help?) Edited July 12, 2015 by ruadath

[ruadath]

Unfortunately, I realized that Seth needs a good level up in order to do enough damage to the boss of the next chapter so that Franz can kill him (for EXP purposes). Therefore, I restarted my playthrough, using the same strategy, but simply modifying the RNG abuse at the end to get Seth a good level up. I also got a slightly different level up fro Franz in Chapter 1; instead of Skill, he increased Defense and Luck. So my post-Chapter 2 stats are:

Name:     Lv.XP HP STR SKL SPD LCK DEF RES
Seth:      2.02 31  15  14  13  13  12  8
Eirika:    2.12 17  5   9   10  6   4   1
Franz:     2.41 21  8   5   8   3   7   1
Gilliam:   4.39 BASE
Vanessa:   2.84 18  6   8   12  4   6   5
Moulder:   3.22 BASE

I also now have screenshots of the two level ups I missed in the previous chapter:

Edited July 12, 2015 by ruadath

[Gradivus.]

I see some room for improvement on chapter 14, you might be able to pull off a 5-turn by doing some very complicated rescue drop chains with Tethys, who would get dropped within 10 tiles of the throne on turn 4 and Eirika would get dropped + danced on turn 5 for the seize. Not necessarily saying that it works, more like you might find a way to do it. C8 is doable in 4 turns, but skipping the whip costs a turn on C10, so it's not worth it.

[ruadath]

Thanks for the feedback! I'll definitely look into that once I get there!

[Lord Raven]

Try VBA-RR for recording videos

[DuckFace]

Try VBA-RR for recording videos

Or specifically, here for the emulator download. The best way to make a movie is to first record the inputs, then play back the movie while making an uncompressed AVI recording. Then you can encode the raw AVI file however you like.

[ruadath]

Chapter 3 clear... still no video (sorry!), but the strategy was fairly similar to that of General Horace, although I had to make modifications to the RNG manipulation due to the fact that my units level up at different times from his, and the fact that the AI reacts slightly differently due to the fact that my Vanessa is stronger. A brief synopsis:

Preparations: Lots of shopping; traded around items to make room, and made sure neither Eirika nor Garcia had non-weapons in their inventories (thief).

Seth - Iron Sword, Iron Lance, Javelin

Eirika - Iron Sword

Franz - Iron Lance

Gilliam - Javelin x2

Vanessa - Javelin

Ross - Hand Axe

Here is a the unit breakdown for the useful characters (i.e. not Neimi and Ross):

Name:     Lv.XP HP STR SKL SPD LCK DEF RES
Seth:      2.08 31  15  14  13  13  12  8
Eirika:    3.50 18  6   10  11  7   4   1
Franz:     3.46 22  9   6   9   3   8   1
Gilliam:   4.49 BASE
Vanessa:   4.28 20  8   10  14  5   7   6
Moulder:   3.66 BASE
Garcia:    4.53 BASE

Edited July 14, 2015 by ruadath

[Sweet_Basil]

I still remember Horace's run, it was awesome! I'll pay attention to this one too.

[ruadath]

Finally cleared Chapter 5. My EXP distribution wasn't nearly as nice as General Horace's, so I ended up having multiple level ups both turns, on the enemy phase... and Artur kept getting killed. I had to change the strategy slightly to fix this but I still managed to get a 2 turn clear, albeit with not nearly as nice level-ups as GH. Stats posted below:

Name:     Lv.XP HP STR/MAG SKL SPD LCK DEF RES
Seth:      3.28 32    16    14  13  13  12  8
Eirika:    4.53 19    7     10  12  8   4   1
Franz:     4.84 23    10    7   10  3   8   2
Gilliam:   4.58 BASE
Vanessa:   5.40 20    8     11  14  6   8   6
Moulder:   3.77 BASE
Garcia:    4.71 BASE
Colm       2.15 BASE
Artur:     3.35 19    7     7   9   2   3   7

I don't think they should, but if the poor level ups turn out to be a problem, I may have to restart from before this chapter.

EDIT: I probably will redo this chapter instead of moving on.

Edited July 17, 2015 by ruadath

[Gradivus.]

Just found a video of C14 getting 5-turned. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJDnXJGI4sM

You might face issues getting Artur to A Staves + 24 mag to 1-turn C16, I recall Horace getting that just barely.

Edited July 19, 2015 by Gradivus.

[General Horace]

He has a promoted Tana and Vanessa, which means he waited for Cormag to show up. It might still be possible with an unpromoted Tana though, I dunno.

Also promoted L'Arachel, rofl

Both Saleh's and Artur's staff rank would be an issue though.

WIth Tower abuse, I still don't think anywhere but the above chapter could be improved. Maybe Chapter 12, maybe chapter 18.

Edited July 19, 2015 by General Horace

[Gradivus.]

I see, I suspected the units needed wouldn't be available. Maybe L'Arachel can be used to rescue the Paladin that killed the Knight on turn 1 so she still reaches Rennac in 2 turns with 7 mov. The OP can probably explore a different strat when he's at C14.

[General Horace]

L'Arachel only has 6 move unpromoted unfourtunately, so it wouldn't be possible. Stupid random FE8 troubadour nerf.

I'm almost 90% sure it can't be 5 turned without another 8 move unit anyway, let alone Promoted L'Arachel.

Edited July 19, 2015 by General Horace

[ruadath]

I've decided to restart this challenge, thanks to both figuring out a couple of new ideas to gain more EXP on the early chapters and the fact that I now an familiar enough with this forum to post proper annotations to each level.

But a question for you guys: What's the proper etiquette with regard to restarting? Should I close this thread and start a new one, or just continue writing here?