Doing a casual HHM ranked run

[Meteor]

I'm lazy and trying to S-rank HHM without doing a detailed run where I religiously track my tactics, xp, etc. So instead I'm gonna do whatever feels right at the time and hope for the best. I haven't played FE in quite some time so even if I don't clinch the S, I'll be familiarized with the chapters for a serious attempt. I'll log my progress every so often.

So far I have:

Completed ch 11 in 6 turns, got a lucky enemy phase crit on the boss. Grabbed the red gem but not the lockpick (thanks to early boss KO)

Completed ch 12, not sure how many turns but it was like 3 more after the boss moved. grabbed the secret book, killed the boss with Eliwood

Completed ch 13 in 9? turns. Had to restart once because Hector missed a soldier who then suicided on Matthew, who subsequently died getting attacked twice in a single enemy phase. Recruited Guy and got the mine & torch. I was gonna have Marcus weaken the boss with the silver lance, but he got a crit. Ended up seizing one turn earlier than expected tho.

Completed ch 13x without killing the boss. My dudes were pretty weak from the high enemy density so I didn't force it. Marcus got the $ from the village, and Guy used up 17 charges of his killing edge >_>

Overall my strategy is just to survive, feed kills to weaker characters when possible, and rely on Marcus to keep tactics in check. I have 4 stars in tactics and 5 in all other categories as of now, which I'm pretty happy with. Here are my guys:

Name    LV XP HP  Pow Skl Spd Lck Def Res BWL
Hector   6.35  23  11   6   6   5   9   1 B41 W12 L0
Matthew  5.87  20   5   6  13   4   3   0 B23 W7 L1
Eliwood  5.35  20   7   7   9   8   6   1 B18 W10 L0
Marcus   2.13  31  15  16  11   9  10   9 B20 W16 L0
Rebecca  3.90  17   4   7   8   5   4   2 B16 W6 L0
Lowen    3.78  24   7   5   7   4   7   0 B14 W3 L0
Dorcas   5.53  31   7   8   7   5   3   0 B15 W7 L0
Bartre   3.25  30   9   6   3   4   4   0 B8 W3 L0
Oswin   10.42  29  14   9   6   3  13   3 B23 W5 L0
Serra    2.22  18   3   6   8   7   2   5 B1 W0 L0
Guy      5.73  27   8  14  15   6   6   1 B17 W11 L0

As far as I can tell, none of them are above the curve so that's disappointing. But people have beaten HHM with 0% growths so whatever.

Edited November 5, 2015 by Meteor

[Meteor]

wow took me three failed attempts before I realized ch15's boss drops the Dracoshield automatically. Gonna have to rethink my strategy on this one XD

[ruadath]

I'll quote my post from a different thread recently in case you're having trouble with this one:

[spoiler=Easy Chapter 15 Strat]

Not sure what is giving you trouble, but there is an easy strat to cheese the chapter if you so desire (though you'll miss out on a decent amount of EXP). Give Marcus a ranged weapon (Hand Axe or Javelin). Deploy him in one of the eastern spots, and on the first turn have him kill one of the knights (don't bother equipping a ranged weapon) from 3 spaces away from the nook. The boss will charge out and attack Marcus with his Longbow, which should barely faze him (if it hits at all). Then just have Marcus kill him on the next turn with the ranged weapon.

Note that killing the boss prevents enemy reinforcements from spawning, so the rest of the chapter will be a breeze. If you don't want to miss out on some of this EXP (i.e. you want to let a few reinforcments come in), you can just modify this strategy so that Marcus aggros the boss on a later turn.

Edited November 7, 2015 by ruadath

[Meteor]

Thanks, I did see your idea but I decided against it. I wanted to grind out as much experience as possible since I'm taking the 7 turn tactics hit anyway.

Ch 14: barely even remember playing it. Finished in roughly 9 turns. Not much to this map but I was glad to see the weather lady was not featured in this mode

Ch 15: I brought Marcus and Oswin to make things easier since I suck at these claustrophobic chapters. Managed to get both chests and the lockpick. Hector got the boss kill.

Also, most of my dudes are getting rotten level ups. Looking forward to Kent/Sain. I'll try to do stats again soon.

[General Banzai]

considering exp is the hardest thing to 5 star you should avoid the heavy Marcus strats

I usually deploy Nino in S rank because I'm always lagging on exp by the end, usually you can afford to trade turns for more exp because tactics is ezpz

[Meteor]

Hmmm Marcus could definitely pose a problem. I wasn't under the impression that tactics was easy which is why I was content to let him take so much XP.

Ideally I would like to continue on since this run was essentially meant to be a litmus test for how careful I have to be about each rank. But if what you are saying is true it may be worth starting over since it would mean a complete change of playstyle. Thankfully I'm not too deep in if I want to do that.

[ruadath]

Hmmm Marcus could definitely pose a problem. I wasn't under the impression that tactics was easy which is why I was content to let him take so much XP.

Ideally I would like to continue on since this run was essentially meant to be a litmus test for how careful I have to be about each rank. But if what you are saying is true it may be worth starting over since it would mean a complete change of playstyle. Thankfully I'm not too deep in if I want to do that.

If your turncounts don't suck, it's not hard to make up EXP with arena abuse/staff spamming in later chapters.

[SSJDennis]

Early EXP for Marcus shouldn't be a problem in the end. Its not like he takes up huge pools of them, unless you let him get the boss kills? Just use him when you're in a tight spot. I think he could rush and kill the boss in Chapter 15x if you wanted too. Or get Oswin there. Maybe Hector could try his luck with the Wolf Beil? I remember Marcus was the key on getting safe out of 15x for me.

[Meteor]

If your turncounts don't suck, it's not hard to make up EXP with arena abuse/staff spamming in later chapters.

My turncounts have been pretty decent I think. I'm definitely not above spamming later. I was also thinking about running 32x.

Early EXP for Marcus shouldn't be a problem in the end. Its not like he takes up huge pools of them, unless you let him get the boss kills? Just use him when you're in a tight spot. I think he could rush and kill the boss in Chapter 15x if you wanted too. Or get Oswin there. Maybe Hector could try his luck with the Wolf Beil? I remember Marcus was the key on getting safe out of 15x for me.

Marcus did get one boss kill so far on accident, but it saved me a turn. I'm hoping to convert that into additional xp in the end. And I assume you mean 17x, which should be as big of a deal now that I have the horseslayer.