The Laziest Awakening Playthrough Ever: The Playlog

TheSilentChloey · November 12, 2015

Yeah, you've got two different things, Streetpass and Spotpass. They're found in the same menu in Awakening, but they're not as related as you'd think, given the names.

Streetpass is a method of connecting to other people with 3DS's who you pass in your everyday life; so definitely in your region, and usually within 100 feet/30 meters of you. In Awakening specifically, you have Streetpassed someone when a random team pops up on your map without being summoned. You can buy things from them, fight them or recruit their avatar with in-game gold; if you fight them, you can also get their avatar for free, as well as Renown. This is the best way to know if someone has seen you - if you've seen them. It can be pretty hard to find anybody in certain areas. The only reason I get any Streetpasses is because I take my 3DS to college with me, and most days I'll find at least one or two teams on my map when I check on it. Most other places, I never see anything happen. If you ever see a team of limit-broken maxed-out kids with Counter and Lethality, including a Manakete Morgan and led by a guy with a Bolganone tome named Mustang, you've probably found me via Streetpass.

Spotpass is how Nintendo sends out free downloadable content for games. With Awakening you get a ton of cool stuff - it's all the things in the Bonus Box. Y'know, the bonus items and maps and teams. Those end-of-game paralogues? Those weren't originally part of the game; those are only accessed by downloading them through Spotpass. One of the nicer features for people trying to break the game (like me) are the Spotpass teams, though. As long as in-game gold is easily accessible (*coughGoldenGaffecough*), mostly anything that isn't legendary can be found in those teams - from Brave weapons to Mire and Nosferatu tomes, to Tomahawks and Hammers, to Javelins and Spears, to Dragonstone+ and Beaststone+, and of course my favorite weapon in any case where one hit isn't enough, Celica's Gale. Unfortunately, Master and Second Seals aren't available (or, for that matter, Rescue staves or Aversa's Night), or you'd see my early-game characters maxed out and raining death upon everything instead of the Riza Army. You get these by going into the menu < Wireless < Bonus Box < Bonus Teams and summon a team from whichever former Fire Emblem game you want. They'll appear on your map similarly to a Streetpass team with pretty much the same options, but they won't appear randomly; they'll only appear because you summoned them. Fighting these also gives you Renown, making them a good way to grind it. You can summon them as many times as you want, as often as you want. The characters you can recruit from these teams (either by fighting them or using in-game gold to recruit the avatar) are often pretty cool, too. They all have access to every class and skill that an Avatar of their gender would have, including the Tactician and Grandmaster classes. About half the time, they'll also come with some sort of skill that a similar Avatar couldn't learn; this is also true for DLC characters. So you can get guys with Galeforce, and there's a number of folks with Charm, or Aether, or Rightful King; and you can also get another version of Tiki from Spotpass, which means you've got access to an extra manakete, and one that can learn any skill from any class available to females. There's even a special class for the Marths called Lodestar, and they can wield Parallel Falchion and Rapiers like Lord classes. Is this a bit overpowered? Maybe, but none of the Spotpass characters can support with your characters, which means that any pair-up bonuses for C-level support or higher must be induced via the Dual+ skills, one of which is only available to females and another of which is only available to Lords (or a limited number of Spotpass/DLC characters), and in order to get more than the tiniest bit of a support bonus you're wasting skill slots. Plus, they aren't voiced and don't have much personality. So they're mostly just good for game-breaking in the early stages or in Normal mode, when you don't have any really powerful enemies to worry about.

And since I keep bringing it up - DLC is the paid stuff found in the Outrealm, and about 80% of the time you can recruit characters from finishing DLC maps. These characters are sometimes better or worse than Spotpass counterparts - they usually come with different exclusive skill sets - and sometimes they don't have Spotpass counterparts. Fun fact: DLC is the only way to get characters with Shadowgift on your team before the endgame. One of those characters is from Champions of Yore 3, which is a nice easy map that caused my (admittedly maxed-out kids) not a single problem. Her name is Micaiah and she comes along with the skill All Stats +2. The other character is Katarina. She can only be recruited by beating Apotheosis. Yes, that's right - the infamous insanely difficult DLC that everybody talks about in hushed tones.

I have both Shadowgift characters.

I am never playing Apotheosis again.

I...I see ^^' I guess then that there are people in my area then that play FEA that I have no idea about (and numerous people). Suffice to say I don't see or meet a lot of people and their teams are so weak that I would have my weakest units take 'em out in a few turns with a bit of prodding. I had to restart the game again because I deleted my current play through by accident :/

Roflolxp54 · November 12, 2015

It's worth playing Infinite Regalia at least once so you can get the Silver Card (halves shop prices, including those from secret shops and Streetpass and Spotpass while the card is in convoy) and it is possible to 1-turn that map with the right units.

If you plan on using Rallybots, look no further than DLC Katarina and Palla as they can learn all Rally skills. And they can go flying staffbots as needed as a bonus.

Edited November 12, 2015 by Roflolxp54

deskita · November 12, 2015

@Nobodyinwonderland I was making a joke about how all avatars start with veteran :)

TheSilentChloey · November 13, 2015

@Nobodyinwonderland I was making a joke about how all avatars start with veteran :)

I think that is perhaps the weirdest part of the game :/ oh why couldn't they do what they did in Pokemon and make your avatar's first class based on a few questions. Then not every avatar would actually be the same :D:

NobodyInWonderland · November 13, 2015

@TheSilentChloey, wow I get rambley when I'm tired, sorry about that. Also, I know that feeling with the teams I meet. I usually just send in a Nosferatank with an S-supporting pair-up, and that's usually more than overkill. I've only met one nearly maxed-out guy, and he didn't have Limit Breaker, so he still didn't get very far. There's often a decent shop or two, so there's that. Sorry about what happened to your current playthrough, that sounds frustrating. Also, about choosing classes: but... but shiny coat is shiny!

@Roflolxp54, hmm, you've got a point about Infinite Regalia. I guess if I'm just going for the Silver Card I can one-turn it with the Logbook characters without steamrolling through the Counter-wielding annoyances for the actual, er, Regalia. A "real" playthrough with a playlog will still wait on the kids, though. As for Rallybots, I don't use them as often as I could - I usually want everything killing everything rather than spending a turn on rallies - but they are useful in certain situations, so I had Katarina go get all the ones I care about (along with a bunch of other skills) before I updated her in the Logbook. I use staffbots a bit more - especially flying ones - but those are pretty easy to make; I prefer a Dark Flier with Shadowgift on easier difficulties because those are rarer and fun to play around with. Between Mire and the extra movement and Galeforce, NOTHING will escape. Nothing. (Later addition to this note: I have the Silver Card now.)

@deskita, oops, sorry for not getting the joke. :)

[spoiler=Ad-MIRE-ation for the Exalt: Chapter 6]

The chapter opens with Chrom hanging out in the garden and being interrupted by Riza. Since I recently Master Sealed them both, this means that they are both taking their evening stroll in admittedly very nice armor. However nice the armor is, though, I can't imagine it's a comfortable clothing option for relaxing at the end of a long day.

Exposition ensues regarding why Gangrel the Mad King is mad at Ylisse, specifically. Chrom is debating whether to go take care of the problem via smacking it with a sword, which has so far been his way of dealing with the majority of problems so far, nice guy though he is. Marth now joins the garden party at this point. It is revealed that the hole in the wall behind the maple grove is the rare sort of problem that was actually caused by smacking something with a sword.

Finally, Marth says something plainly.

Well, why didn't you say so before? I guess as 'he' says, Chrom wouldn't have believed it, but still. A cutscene ensues now, in which a pair of assassins don't seem to think that attacking the two people in shiny armor and the mysterious person with the giant sword, two of which have weapons drawn, is a bad idea. 'Marth' also loses 'his' mask, to reveal that he is actually a she, because masks hide everything in fiction. And no woman in this universe ever had short hair, obviously. 'Marth' is surprised that Chrom didn't figure this out earlier; that makes two of us.

Now it's time to prepare for battle. So who are our players today?

Well, we've of course got Chrom and Riza with their shiny new advanced classes...

And we are being rejoined by Sorcerer Riza. She now has boots.

We have three new faces on the field as well. Did you read my long rant in my previous post? No? I really, really wouldn't blame you if you didn't, it's not that relevant to the playthrough and it's LONG. However, if you did, you'd know I have the two DLC characters with Shadowgift. One of these is this cute little face:

And the other is... probably still cute, but the pain I went through to get her is still fairly fresh so I'm a little bit terrified by association.

A note: if you ever wake up one day and say, "Hey, I've got maxed-out characters and a little cash, and I really want Katarina, why don't I go try to beat Apotheosis, it can't be that bad on Normal, right?", don't. This is a bad idea. Learn from my mistake and have a team of Rallybots, and Aegis and Pavise, about a million Brave weapons and DON'T. UNDERESTIMATE. APOTHEOSIS. Even if you're playing on Normal.

Anyway, we've got one more player for this battle. This is an avatar I recruited by beating a Streetpass team. This one was a sniper when I got her, so she has the Hit +20 skill, which isn't actually that bad but never ends up on any of my characters due to my dislike of archers. I ran her through several classes before deciding she'd make a decent Sorcerer. Mainly I just wanted more sorcerers.

Do you see a pattern with today's Logbook League? Well, let's spell it out for you: All of them have Mire Tomes equipped.

Mire is one of my favorite ways to troll the enemy AI. A character with a Mire tome can not respond to attacks 1-2 spaces away, and enemies will ALWAYS attack an available enemy who can't attack back, whether or not they actually have a chance of hitting this enemy. (Exception: Tiki paralogue.) On the other hand, a Mire-wielding Galeforce sorcerer can one-turn a small defeat-the-commander map with weaker enemies (though I'm not going to do that with this map, since I'd miss too much). If it had better hit, could be forged, allowed procs to activate and/or allowed doubling, Mire would be one of the scariest tomes in the game. So it's a bit of a double troll, especially in levels this low and stats this high: All the enemies head for the "defenseless" character who's probably the least likely to take damage, and/or you've got a character who can sit 10 squares away and zap everyone from the comfortable safety of the corner of the map.

If you haven't guessed yet, this battle's theme is Mire tomes.

Let's begin the battle. Sorcerer Riza, Katarina and Our Riza are on the left-hand side along with Chrom; Micaiah and Lingis are on the right.

Creepy Gray Guy, who I thought we killed already, is back and still creepy. More awesomely, Gaius has appeared, and is a bit surprised and unhappy to hear that they're supposed to kill Emmeryn.

I bet calling someone "sweet" is, to him, a compliment of the highest order. Also? I love Gaius. Not just because he's hilarious, but also because he is a kindred spirit. CANDY. SUGAR. GIVE ME IT.

Ahem, sorry about that.

Emmeryn wants Chrom to run away and take Lissa, despite the fact that he's perfectly capable of taking care of himself, especially since he remembered to Master Seal before fighting Creepy Gray Guy this time around. Creepy Gray Guy gets more creepy, and Falchion starts acting up. As usual, Marth does not explain.

Finally, I can actually move. Now, it would be really, REALLY easy to make this a one-turn map; it's a Defeat the Commander map and Galeforce + a Mire tome could take care of that little problem. However, I'd miss out on a few things if I did that, like Gaius and that chest by Emmeryn, along with two sparkly tiles. So we're going not going to do that. What I am going to do is highlight Gaius, and put Chrom supported by Riza just outside his attack range so Gaius doesn't die by throwing himself on Chrom's sword before Chrom can talk to him. Chrom is now within range of an axe-wielding fighter. Somehow, I'm not too worried about Chrom.

Next, you know what always annoys me about this level? If I let Chrom talk to Gaius, he gets stuck within attack range of a couple pesky Dark Mages who he can't retaliate against. You know what's not going to annoy me this time, thanks to Sorcerer Riza?

This guy. This guy is not going to annoy me this time. (Don't worry, he's not left with any health; I just didn't grab a screenshot at the right time to show the HP bar entirely drained.)

I have her take out the other Dark Mage from the safety of a nice corner. Next up, I have Katarina, and there's another fighter at the top of the stairs in the middle of the map and within range of Marth. Since Marth needs a bit of training before she becomes truly useful, I don't really want her attacked. It would probable be better for me to actually move Katarina closer and use the backup Nosferatu tome, so she has the extra movement to go sit on the stairs and block enemies from coming up them. Wait, no. She's a flier with Boots. Extra movement? Who needs extra movement?

By sitting her at the bottom of the steps, she's within range of a bunch of enemies. Now, the smart thing to do would be to equip Nosferatu and wait for the enemies to throw themselves at her on the enemy phase. However, that would mean another Death Montage, and those are going to wear thin if I use them every single chapter. So instead, she's going to sit there, and I'm going to laugh as the enemies try to attack her and fail repeatedly when any sensible person would realize the futility and go find another way in.

So instead, I'm going to have her Mire another Dark Mage across from the stairs, because I hate those guys.

I've got Lingis and Micaiah still left to move on the right-hand side, and at the foot of the right-hand stairs there's a thief (not Gaius) and two fighters. A bit to the left, there's also a Dark Mage. That's four, which is the perfect number because that's how many moves I have between the two of them and Galeforce.

Lingis crits on one of the fighters for 213 damage and the Dark Mage for 204 damage. Micaiah just takes out her Fighter and Thief with 68 damage a piece. And then it's the enemy phase.

The fighter approaches Chrom. Chrom uses Smacking It With A Sword. It's super effective.

Only two enemies were within range of Katarina, which means that I don't have enough screenshots to make a Dodge Montage yet. I'll save a screenshot for later.

All the enemies move closer except Creepy Gray Guy, and Panne appears. Apparently she was able to slip in with the enemies. On the note of slipping in, I'd really like to know how all those horsemen got in, or if Ylissean security is just that bad. Y'know, Panne is awesome on principle because Giant Killer Bunny, but it'd be nice if she stopped insulting humans, maybe? Please? No? Okay.

Marth informs Chrom that, despite the fact that the last person who insulted him had absolutely no good intentions, this one is actually on his side. Chrom is a very trusting person when Marth bothers to say things plainly. Well, she did just warn him about the impending attack on himself and his sister.

Now Gaius is close enough for Chrom to talk to. I laugh at this conversation every single time. The tone in which he says "sugar" cracks me up, not at all because I have had a similar response when cookies are around. He's willing to take candy as payment for working for Chrom now, and gold later...

Thanks to Sorcerer Riza, there aren't any enemies within range. However, there is a chest in Emmeryn's room, and I now have a thief with Locktouch. I move Gaius as far toward the room as possible and have him wait.

Next up, Katarina. There's a sparkly tile near her, and I have her go sit on it. I also have her take out a thief near the left-hand stairs. She crits for 216 damage.

Also...

Two cavaliers, a dark mage and a fighter are coming up the lower left-hand stairs, so I have Lingis and Micaiah take care of that little problem. Each one gets a cavalier, and Lingis crits on the fighter for 216 damage (I really want to know how she crits so much, and could she teach Riza please). Apparently Micaiah is learning a lot from fighting alongside her, since Micaiah crits against the dark mage for 195 damage.

There's a similar set of enemies coming up the lower right-hand stairs as well; and since dark mages have annoyed me so much in the past, I let Katarina take the guy out.

Sorcerer Riza is the only one left. I move her around to the right-side stairs and have her deal with the two cavaliers. I guess Lingis got the teach-Riza-crits message.

She takes out the other cavalier as well. Only Panne is left, and Emmeryn looks a little lonely. Besides, there's a sparkly tile in Emmeryn's room. I have Panne wait on it. I get a glass bow. Wonderful.

Now it's the enemy phase, and I finally get enough screenshots for a Katarina Dodge Montage. It's a little tricky because of the whole flier business, but think I managed well enough. I did have to use the "pause" button to avoid cutting off her head, which means that I didn't get the "miss" text; trust me that every single one of these guys missed.

And, as a bonus from the last enemy phase:

I think the thieves mistook "Dodge Montage" for "Dance Montage".

The last fighter walks up the lower right-hand stairs, and then it's my turn again.

I move Gaius to Emmeryn's room and have him wait next to Panne. He doesn't have enough movement to get the chest yet, but he will next turn. I want Riza to be the one to confront Creepy Gray Guy, so I move Chrom as far down the right-hand stairs as possible and switch him out with Riza. I have Lingis take out the two fighters from the Dodge Montage. Micaiah gets the two thieves. She crits on the last one for 204 damage. I decide to let Katarina have the final fighter, and she crits for 213 damage.

Now, there aren't really any more minions to take out, so there's nothing for any of the Logbook League to do. I end my turn early. Validar doesn't do anything on the next turn, so it's my turn again.

I send Gaius to go open the chest. He gets a Secret Book. It would be far more hilarious if he got Gaius's Confect.

Our Riza supported by Chrom moves toward Creepy and waits. I end my turn. He finally moves toward Riza on the enemy phase, which means that she can now attack him on my turn.

Riza doesn't respond, likely because who'd want to admit to recognizing that face, and a dual strike from her and Chrom takes him out nicely. Validar says that this is all wrong. I would like to disagree. "How could... you have known the plan..." he asks. Er... because some mysterious stranger brought us a message in the nick of time? Y'know, like it happens in all the stories. Not very genre-savvy, are you, Mr. Creepy?

Riza goes from 0 XP to gaining a level, because she has Veteran and Paragon equipped and this is a boss. Given that her stats are changing between every chapter now, I'm not going to keep doing the screenshots-of-points thing because it would be pointless. Pun intended.

I get a Heal, which is a very ironic thing for a guy that looks like he has skin problems to be carrying, and that's the end of the stage.

Emmeryn thanks Chrom, Phila apologizes for the poor security but doesn't explain it, and Marth tries her walking-away-without-explaining-anything trick. This time, Chrom catches her and thanks her, which gets a surprisingly pretty smile out of her. She also seems to be more interested in actually explaining things that she knows about some sort of averted future, which would have been nice while trying to avert said future, but hey, everything seems to have worked out.

Next we have a rather stand-offish Panne, and she explains why her names for humans seem to be primarily derogatory: apparently humans killed her people. Emmeryn demonstrates that kind words and a ton of empathy actually work in the case of our very angry bunny friend, and she decides to stick around.

Our Gray Guy has finally found a world with a similar color theme to himself to hang out in, but still doesn't seem particularly happy for some reason. Oh right, because he wasn't finished being evil. He is joined by someone who appears to be in need of pants, who claims to be Grima. I don't care if this is Grima, pants are still needed.

Chrom and Co. try to get Emmeryn to relocate to a safer spot, she agrees and the chapter ends. An Anna shows up on the map afterward, bringing good things.

I might have to actually start grinding some characters besides Chrom and Riza soon, if Anna keeps being this awesome.

Edited November 13, 2015 by NobodyInWonderland

TheSilentChloey · November 13, 2015

@TheSilentChloey, wow I get rambley when I'm tired, sorry about that. Also, I know that feeling with the teams I meet. I usually just send in a Nosferatank with an S-supporting pair-up, and that's usually more than overkill. I've only met one nearly maxed-out guy, and he didn't have Limit Breaker, so he still didn't get very far. There's often a decent shop or two, so there's that. Sorry about what happened to your current playthrough, that sounds frustrating. Also, about choosing classes: but... but shiny coat is shiny!

@Roflolxp54, hmm, you've got a point about Infinite Regalia. I guess if I'm just going for the Silver Card I can one-turn it with the Logbook characters without steamrolling through the Counter-wielding annoyances for the actual, er, Regalia. A "real" playthrough with a playlog will still wait on the kids, though. As for Rallybots, I don't use them as often as I could - I usually want everything killing everything rather than spending a turn on rallies - but they are useful in certain situations, so I had Katarina go get all the ones I care about (along with a bunch of other skills) before I updated her in the Logbook. I use staffbots a bit more - especially flying ones - but those are pretty easy to make; I prefer a Dark Flier with Shadowgift on easier difficulties because those are rarer and fun to play around with. Between Mire and the extra movement and Galeforce, NOTHING will escape. Nothing. (Later addition to this note: I have the Silver Card now.)

@deskita, oops, sorry for not getting the joke. :)

[spoiler=Ad-MIRE-ation for the Exalt: Chapter 6]

The chapter opens with Chrom hanging out in the garden and being interrupted by Riza. Since I recently Master Sealed them both, this means that they are both taking their evening stroll in admittedly very nice armor. However nice the armor is, though, I can't imagine it's a comfortable clothing option for relaxing at the end of a long day.

Exposition ensues regarding why Gangrel the Mad King is mad at Ylisse, specifically. Chrom is debating whether to go take care of the problem via smacking it with a sword, which has so far been his way of dealing with the majority of problems so far, nice guy though he is. Marth now joins the garden party at this point. It is revealed that the hole in the wall behind the maple grove is the rare sort of problem that was actually caused by smacking something with a sword.

Finally, Marth says something plainly.

Well, why didn't you say so before? I guess as 'he' says, Chrom wouldn't have believed it, but still. A cutscene ensues now, in which a pair of assassins don't seem to think that attacking the two people in shiny armor and the mysterious person with the giant sword, two of which have weapons drawn, is a bad idea. 'Marth' also loses 'his' mask, to reveal that he is actually a she, because masks hide everything in fiction. And no woman in this universe ever had short hair, obviously. 'Marth' is surprised that Chrom didn't figure this out earlier; that makes two of us.

Now it's time to prepare for battle. So who are our players today?

Well, we've of course got Chrom and Riza with their shiny new advanced classes...

And we are being rejoined by Sorcerer Riza. She now has boots.

We have three new faces on the field as well. Did you read my long rant in my previous post? No? I really, really wouldn't blame you if you didn't, it's not that relevant to the playthrough and it's LONG. However, if you did, you'd know I have the two DLC characters with Shadowgift. One of these is this cute little face:

And the other is... probably still cute, but the pain I went through to get her is still fairly fresh so I'm a little bit terrified by association.

A note: if you ever wake up one day and say, "Hey, I've got maxed-out characters and a little cash, and I really want Katarina, why don't I go try to beat Apotheosis, it can't be that bad on Normal, right?", don't. This is a bad idea. Learn from my mistake and have a team of Rallybots, and Aegis and Pavise, about a million Brave weapons and DON'T. UNDERESTIMATE. APOTHEOSIS. Even if you're playing on Normal.

Anyway, we've got one more player for this battle. This is an avatar I recruited by beating a Streetpass team. This one was a sniper when I got her, so she has the Hit +20 skill, which isn't actually that bad but never ends up on any of my characters due to my dislike of archers. I ran her through several classes before deciding she'd make a decent Sorcerer. Mainly I just wanted more sorcerers.

Do you see a pattern with today's Logbook League? Well, let's spell it out for you: All of them have Mire Tomes equipped.

Mire is one of my favorite ways to troll the enemy AI. A character with a Mire tome can not respond to attacks 1-2 spaces away, and enemies will ALWAYS attack an available enemy who can't attack back, whether or not they actually have a chance of hitting this enemy. (Exception: Tiki paralogue.) On the other hand, a Mire-wielding Galeforce sorcerer can one-turn a small defeat-the-commander map with weaker enemies (though I'm not going to do that with this map, since I'd miss too much). If it had better hit, could be forged, allowed procs to activate and/or allowed doubling, Mire would be one of the scariest tomes in the game. So it's a bit of a double troll, especially in levels this low and stats this high: All the enemies head for the "defenseless" character who's probably the least likely to take damage, and/or you've got a character who can sit 10 squares away and zap everyone from the comfortable safety of the corner of the map.

If you haven't guessed yet, this battle's theme is Mire tomes.

Let's begin the battle. Sorcerer Riza, Katarina and Our Riza are on the left-hand side along with Chrom; Micaiah and Lingis are on the right.

Creepy Gray Guy, who I thought we killed already, is back and still creepy. More awesomely, Gaius has appeared, and is a bit surprised and unhappy to hear that they're supposed to kill Emmeryn.

I bet calling someone "sweet" is, to him, a compliment of the highest order. Also? I love Gaius. Not just because he's hilarious, but also because he is a kindred spirit. CANDY. SUGAR. GIVE ME IT.

Ahem, sorry about that.

Emmeryn wants Chrom to run away and take Lissa, despite the fact that he's perfectly capable of taking care of himself, especially since he remembered to Master Seal before fighting Creepy Gray Guy this time around. Creepy Gray Guy gets more creepy, and Falchion starts acting up. As usual, Marth does not explain.

Finally, I can actually move. Now, it would be really, REALLY easy to make this a one-turn map; it's a Defeat the Commander map and Galeforce + a Mire tome could take care of that little problem. However, I'd miss out on a few things if I did that, like Gaius and that chest by Emmeryn, along with two sparkly tiles. So we're going not going to do that. What I am going to do is highlight Gaius, and put Chrom supported by Riza just outside his attack range so Gaius doesn't die by throwing himself on Chrom's sword before Chrom can talk to him. Chrom is now within range of an axe-wielding fighter. Somehow, I'm not too worried about Chrom.

Next, you know what always annoys me about this level? If I let Chrom talk to Gaius, he gets stuck within attack range of a couple pesky Dark Mages who he can't retaliate against. You know what's not going to annoy me this time, thanks to Sorcerer Riza?

This guy. This guy is not going to annoy me this time. (Don't worry, he's not left with any health; I just didn't grab a screenshot at the right time to show the HP bar entirely drained.)

I have her take out the other Dark Mage from the safety of a nice corner. Next up, I have Katarina, and there's another fighter at the top of the stairs in the middle of the map and within range of Marth. Since Marth needs a bit of training before she becomes truly useful, I don't really want her attacked. It would probable be better for me to actually move Katarina closer and use the backup Nosferatu tome, so she has the extra movement to go sit on the stairs and block enemies from coming up them. Wait, no. She's a flier with Boots. Extra movement? Who needs extra movement?

By sitting her at the bottom of the steps, she's within range of a bunch of enemies. Now, the smart thing to do would be to equip Nosferatu and wait for the enemies to throw themselves at her on the enemy phase. However, that would mean another Death Montage, and those are going to wear thin if I use them every single chapter. So instead, she's going to sit there, and I'm going to laugh as the enemies try to attack her and fail repeatedly when any sensible person would realize the futility and go find another way in.

So instead, I'm going to have her Mire another Dark Mage across from the stairs, because I hate those guys.

I've got Lingis and Micaiah still left to move on the right-hand side, and at the foot of the right-hand stairs there's a thief (not Gaius) and two fighters. A bit to the left, there's also a Dark Mage. That's four, which is the perfect number because that's how many moves I have between the two of them and Galeforce.

Lingis crits on one of the fighters for 213 damage and the Dark Mage for 204 damage. Micaiah just takes out her Fighter and Thief with 68 damage a piece. And then it's the enemy phase.

The fighter approaches Chrom. Chrom uses Smacking It With A Sword. It's super effective.

Only two enemies were within range of Katarina, which means that I don't have enough screenshots to make a Dodge Montage yet. I'll save a screenshot for later.

All the enemies move closer except Creepy Gray Guy, and Panne appears. Apparently she was able to slip in with the enemies. On the note of slipping in, I'd really like to know how all those horsemen got in, or if Ylissean security is just that bad. Y'know, Panne is awesome on principle because Giant Killer Bunny, but it'd be nice if she stopped insulting humans, maybe? Please? No? Okay.

Marth informs Chrom that, despite the fact that the last person who insulted him had absolutely no good intentions, this one is actually on his side. Chrom is a very trusting person when Marth bothers to say things plainly. Well, she did just warn him about the impending attack on himself and his sister.

Now Gaius is close enough for Chrom to talk to. I laugh at this conversation every single time. The tone in which he says "sugar" cracks me up, not at all because I have had a similar response when cookies are around. He's willing to take candy as payment for working for Chrom now, and gold later...

Thanks to Sorcerer Riza, there aren't any enemies within range. However, there is a chest in Emmeryn's room, and I now have a thief with Locktouch. I move Gaius as far toward the room as possible and have him wait.

Next up, Katarina. There's a sparkly tile near her, and I have her go sit on it. I also have her take out a thief near the left-hand stairs. She crits for 216 damage.

Also...

Two cavaliers, a dark mage and a fighter are coming up the lower left-hand stairs, so I have Lingis and Micaiah take care of that little problem. Each one gets a cavalier, and Lingis crits on the fighter for 216 damage (I really want to know how she crits so much, and could she teach Riza please). Apparently Micaiah is learning a lot from fighting alongside her, since Micaiah crits against the dark mage for 195 damage.

There's a similar set of enemies coming up the lower right-hand stairs as well; and since dark mages have annoyed me so much in the past, I let Katarina take the guy out.

Sorcerer Riza is the only one left. I move her around to the right-side stairs and have her deal with the two cavaliers. I guess Lingis got the teach-Riza-crits message.

She takes out the other cavalier as well. Only Panne is left, and Emmeryn looks a little lonely. Besides, there's a sparkly tile in Emmeryn's room. I have Panne wait on it. I get a glass bow. Wonderful.

Now it's the enemy phase, and I finally get enough screenshots for a Katarina Dodge Montage. It's a little tricky because of the whole flier business, but think I managed well enough. I did have to use the "pause" button to avoid cutting off her heads, which means that I didn't get the "miss" text; trust me that every single one of these guys missed.

And, as a bonus from the last enemy phase:

I think the thieves mistook "Dodge Montage" for "Dance Montage".

The last fighter walks up the lower right-hand stairs, and then it's my turn again.

I move Gaius to Emmeryn's room and have him wait next to Panne. He doesn't have enough movement to get the chest yet, but he will next turn. I want Riza to be the one to confront Creepy Gray Guy, so I move Chrom as far down the right-hand stairs as possible and switch him out with Riza. I have Lingis take out the two fighters from the Dodge Montage. Micaiah gets the two thieves. She crits on the last one for 204 damage. I decide to let Katarina have the final fighter, and she crits for 213 damage.

Now, there aren't really any more minions to take out, so there's nothing for any of the Logbook League to do. I end my turn early. Validar doesn't do anything on the next turn, so it's my turn again.

I send Gaius to go open the chest. He gets a Secret Book. It would be far more hilarious if he got Gaius's Confect.

Our Riza supported by Chrom moves toward Creepy and waits. I end my turn. He finally moves toward Riza on the enemy phase, which means that she can now attack him on my turn.

Riza doesn't respond, likely because who'd want to admit to recognizing that face, and a dual strike from her and Chrom takes him out nicely. Validar says that this is all wrong. I would like to disagree. "How could... you have known the plan..." he asks. Er... because some mysterious stranger brought us a message in the nick of time? Y'know, like it happens in all the stories. Not very genre-savvy, are you, Mr. Creepy?

Riza goes from 0 XP to gaining a level, because she has Veteran and Paragon equipped and this is a boss. Given that her stats are changing between every chapter now, I'm not going to keep doing the screenshots-of-points thing because it would be pointless. Pun intended.

I get a Heal, which is a very ironic thing for a guy that looks like he has skin problems to be carrying, and that's the end of the stage.

Emmeryn thanks Chrom, Phila apologizes for the poor security but doesn't explain it, and Marth tries her walking-away-without-explaining-anything trick. This time, Chrom catches her and thanks her, which gets a surprisingly pretty smile out of her. She also seems to be more interested in actually explaining things that she knows about some sort of averted future, which would have been nice while trying to avert said future, but hey, everything seems to have worked out.

Next we have a rather stand-offish Panne, and she explains why her names for humans seem to be primarily derogatory: apparently humans killed her people. Emmeryn demonstrates that kind words and a ton of empathy actually work in the case of our very angry bunny friend, and she decides to stick around.

Our Gray Guy has finally found a world with a similar color theme to himself to hang out in, but still doesn't seem particularly happy for some reason. Oh right, because he wasn't finished being evil. He is joined by someone who appears to be in need of pants, who claims to be Grima. I don't care if this is Grima, pants are still needed.

Chrom and Co. try to get Emmeryn to relocate to a safer spot, she agrees and the chapter ends. An Anna shows up on the map afterward, bringing good things.

I might have to actually start grinding some characters besides Chrom and Riza soon, if Anna keeps being this awesome.

Well worth the fun and games my dear. Love the pun for the spoiler tag :D:

Roflolxp54 · November 13, 2015

@Roflolxp54, hmm, you've got a point about Infinite Regalia. I guess if I'm just going for the Silver Card I can one-turn it with the Logbook characters without steamrolling through the Counter-wielding annoyances for the actual, er, Regalia. A "real" playthrough with a playlog will still wait on the kids, though. As for Rallybots, I don't use them as often as I could - I usually want everything killing everything rather than spending a turn on rallies - but they are useful in certain situations, so I had Katarina go get all the ones I care about (along with a bunch of other skills) before I updated her in the Logbook. I use staffbots a bit more - especially flying ones - but those are pretty easy to make; I prefer a Dark Flier with Shadowgift on easier difficulties because those are rarer and fun to play around with. Between Mire and the extra movement and Galeforce, NOTHING will escape. Nothing. (Later addition to this note: I have the Silver Card now.)

I'd prefer forged Celica's Gale or forged Waste as Mire cannot double and cannot use any attack skill and therefore may not OHKO/ORKO. But Mire certainly works early game -- great for taking out pesky plumbers thieves before they make off with the booty.

EvilElectro · November 13, 2015

When I read the title for chapter 6, it kinda explained everything to me.

Another two (sorry for the multiple questions),

1. Why don't you like archers? They can be excellent at accuracy and having a Lou'qu father for Noire means DEATH for everyone :3

2. Do you have Rogues and Redeemer's 3? Because from that you can get a broken skill called Limit Breaker, that allows you to make every skill have 10 more stats, cause I got a Berserker, with strength 2 AND Limit breaker as he #REKTS EVERYTHIN'!

Roflolxp54 · November 13, 2015

When I read the title for chapter 6, it kinda explained everything to me.

Another two (sorry for the multiple questions),

1. Why don't you like archers? They can be excellent at accuracy and having a Lou'qu father for Noire means DEATH for everyone :3

2. Do you have Rogues and Redeemer's 3? Because from that you can get a broken skill called Limit Breaker, that allows you to make every skill have 10 more stats, cause I got a Berserker, with strength 2 AND Limit breaker as he #REKTS EVERYTHIN'!

Archers, for the most part, are mediocre outside of Lunatic+ difficulty (as bow wielders are immune to the Counter skill). However, certain snipers can make really good Pair-Up partners (looking at Chrom and Lucina).

Snipers, before other support bonuses are applied, have the highest Dual Strike rate by having the highest max Skill cap. Chrom and Lucina have the Dual Strike+ skill at the start, which allows them to potentially get guaranteed Dual Strike rates if paired with their S-supports and if equipped with Limit Break. This is hilarious when combined with the (forged) Brave Bow, Bowfaire and All Stats +2 and possible Rally skills.

NobodyInWonderland · November 13, 2015

@TheSilentChloey, glad you enjoyed the pun!

@Roflolxp54, Celica's Gale is my favorite thing ever and I tend to give it to everyone once I start meeting enemies that actually need more than one hit. Well, that, and I like Aversa's Night as well; but Celica's Gale is far more helpful for getting Galeforce activation against really tough enemies (I would never have survived Apotheosis without it, and it makes Rogues and Redeemers 3 easy). Mire is just a huge amount of fun when I have really overpowered characters, like I did in this last chapter.

@EvilElectro, to answer your questions:

1. The majority of enemies have either 1-range weapons, or 1-2 range weapons. Archers are perfectly fine on the player phase; but as soon as enemy phase hits they get swarmed and can't counterattack because everything that is able to is going to hit from 1-range. If they're weak, that means they die quickly unless I am absolutely sure I can annihilate everything in the area on player phase (or spam Rescue staffs), and if they're strong enough to avoid any hits, then that still means that I have to have them do almost all their attacking on player phase. Worst case scenario for a strong archer is they get boxed in by enemies and can't get far enough away to actually attack. And, given that I tend to grind by dropping a paired-up character in the middle of a map with a bunch of enemies I know they can beat and mashing End Turn (and picking off the ranged ones during player phase until the character has a high enough weapon level to give 'em a 1-2 range weapon), this means more work for me while grinding. You'll probably notice eventually that I also don't use a lot of sword-exclusive classes for a similar reason, though there's at least more enemies who have 1-range weapons than enemies who are archers. And you can't stop them from attacking by boxing them in.

As far as Dual Strikes, I usually find that I get enough of those from Chrom and Lucina already, at least for the difficulties I generally play on. And while Chrom usually gets relegated to Avatar Support and the whole Supporting Sniper thing would probably make him even better at that... I like his Great Lord outfit, and if he has an unbreakable sword why not let him use it? As for Lucina, she gets too many great skills and classes from the majority of her parents to relegate her to a support-only unit. I do have to say, though, that if I were to pick a character to be a sniper, it would be a kid with Galeforce, like most Lucinas or Gauis/Donnel Noire. At least that way I could have them attack and move out of range, or attack and then have whoever they're paired up with switch so that they're not in the lead on the enemy phase. And I could probably strategize well enough to make an archer useful through careful positioning so that they're not in the way of anything nasty during enemy phase. On the other hand, why strategize when I can reclass to Sage or Sorcerer, hand 'em a tome and have them hitting back no wonder what comes their way?

2. If you look at the Logbook League again, you'll notice that every single one has Limit Breaker equipped. I absolutely do have Rogues and Redeemers 3 and I've run through it so many times it's ridiculous. I pretty much only think of units as having four skill slots now because the fifth is always reserved for Limit Breaker.

Edited November 13, 2015 by NobodyInWonderland

TheSilentChloey · November 13, 2015

@TheSilentChloey, glad you enjoyed the pun!

@Roflolxp54, Celica's Gale is my favorite thing ever and I tend to give it to everyone once I start meeting enemies that actually need more than one hit. Well, that, and I like Aversa's Night as well; but Celica's Gale is far more helpful for getting Galeforce activation against really tough enemies (I would never have survived Apotheosis without it, and it makes Rogues and Redeemers 3 easy). Mire is just a huge amount of fun when I have really overpowered characters, like I did in this last chapter.

@EvilElectro, to answer your questions:

1. The majority of enemies have either 1-range weapons, or 1-2 range weapons. Archers are perfectly fine on the player phase; but as soon as enemy phase hits they get swarmed and can't counterattack because everything that is able to is going to hit from 1-range. If they're weak, that means they die quickly unless I am absolutely sure I can annihilate everything in the area on player phase (or spam Rescue staffs), and if they're strong enough to avoid any hits, then that still means that I have to have them do almost all their attacking on player phase. Worst case scenario for a strong archer is they get boxed in by enemies and can't get far enough away to actually attack. And, given that I tend to grind by dropping a paired-up character in the middle of a map with a bunch of enemies I know they can beat and mashing End Turn (and picking off the ranged ones during player phase until the character has a high enough weapon level to give 'em a 1-2 range weapon), this means more work for me while grinding. You'll probably notice eventually that I also don't use a lot of sword-exclusive classes for a similar reason, though there's at least more enemies who have 1-range weapons than enemies who are archers. And you can't stop them from attacking by boxing them in.

As far as Dual Strikes, I usually find that I get enough of those from Chrom and Lucina already, at least for the difficulties I generally play on. And while Chrom usually gets relegated to Avatar Support and the whole Supporting Sniper thing would probably make him even better at that... I like his Great Lord outfit, and if he has an unbreakable sword why not let him use it? As for Lucina, she gets too many great skills and classes from the majority of her parents to relegate her to a support-only unit. I do have to say, though, that if I were to pick a character to be a sniper, it would be a kid with Galeforce, like most Lucinas or Gauis/Donnel Noire. At least that way I could have them attack and move out of range, or attack and then have whoever they're paired up with switch so that they're not in the lead on the enemy phase. And I could probably strategize well enough to make an archer useful through careful positioning so that they're not in the way of anything nasty during enemy phase. On the other hand, why strategize when I can reclass to Sage or Sorcerer, hand 'em a tome and have them hitting back no wonder what comes their way?

2. If you look at the Logbook League again, you'll notice that every single one has Limit Breaker equipped. I absolutely do have Rogues and Redeemers 3 and I've run through it so many times it's ridiculous. I pretty much only think of units as having four skill slots now because the fifth is always reserved for Limit Breaker.

*laughs* Yes I saw the pun. I have been working on a few ideas for my current playthrough. Mostly I am trying to get my nits to take minimal damage. I fail though :/ I really am terrible at this game *sighs*

EvilElectro · November 13, 2015

@TheSilentChloey, wow I get rambley when I'm tired, sorry about that. Also, I know that feeling with the teams I meet. I usually just send in a Nosferatank with an S-supporting pair-up, and that's usually more than overkill. I've only met one nearly maxed-out guy, and he didn't have Limit Breaker, so he still didn't get very far. There's often a decent shop or two, so there's that. Sorry about what happened to your current playthrough, that sounds frustrating. Also, about choosing classes: but... but shiny coat is shiny!

@Roflolxp54, hmm, you've got a point about Infinite Regalia. I guess if I'm just going for the Silver Card I can one-turn it with the Logbook characters without steamrolling through the Counter-wielding annoyances for the actual, er, Regalia. A "real" playthrough with a playlog will still wait on the kids, though. As for Rallybots, I don't use them as often as I could - I usually want everything killing everything rather than spending a turn on rallies - but they are useful in certain situations, so I had Katarina go get all the ones I care about (along with a bunch of other skills) before I updated her in the Logbook. I use staffbots a bit more - especially flying ones - but those are pretty easy to make; I prefer a Dark Flier with Shadowgift on easier difficulties because those are rarer and fun to play around with. Between Mire and the extra movement and Galeforce, NOTHING will escape. Nothing. (Later addition to this note: I have the Silver Card now.)

@deskita, oops, sorry for not getting the joke. :)

[spoiler=Ad-MIRE-ation for the Exalt: Chapter 6]

The chapter opens with Chrom hanging out in the garden and being interrupted by Riza. Since I recently Master Sealed them both, this means that they are both taking their evening stroll in admittedly very nice armor. However nice the armor is, though, I can't imagine it's a comfortable clothing option for relaxing at the end of a long day.

Exposition ensues regarding why Gangrel the Mad King is mad at Ylisse, specifically. Chrom is debating whether to go take care of the problem via smacking it with a sword, which has so far been his way of dealing with the majority of problems so far, nice guy though he is. Marth now joins the garden party at this point. It is revealed that the hole in the wall behind the maple grove is the rare sort of problem that was actually caused by smacking something with a sword.

Finally, Marth says something plainly.

Well, why didn't you say so before? I guess as 'he' says, Chrom wouldn't have believed it, but still. A cutscene ensues now, in which a pair of assassins don't seem to think that attacking the two people in shiny armor and the mysterious person with the giant sword, two of which have weapons drawn, is a bad idea. 'Marth' also loses 'his' mask, to reveal that he is actually a she, because masks hide everything in fiction. And no woman in this universe ever had short hair, obviously. 'Marth' is surprised that Chrom didn't figure this out earlier; that makes two of us.

Now it's time to prepare for battle. So who are our players today?

Well, we've of course got Chrom and Riza with their shiny new advanced classes...

And we are being rejoined by Sorcerer Riza. She now has boots.

We have three new faces on the field as well. Did you read my long rant in my previous post? No? I really, really wouldn't blame you if you didn't, it's not that relevant to the playthrough and it's LONG. However, if you did, you'd know I have the two DLC characters with Shadowgift. One of these is this cute little face:

And the other is... probably still cute, but the pain I went through to get her is still fairly fresh so I'm a little bit terrified by association.

A note: if you ever wake up one day and say, "Hey, I've got maxed-out characters and a little cash, and I really want Katarina, why don't I go try to beat Apotheosis, it can't be that bad on Normal, right?", don't. This is a bad idea. Learn from my mistake and have a team of Rallybots, and Aegis and Pavise, about a million Brave weapons and DON'T. UNDERESTIMATE. APOTHEOSIS. Even if you're playing on Normal.

Anyway, we've got one more player for this battle. This is an avatar I recruited by beating a Streetpass team. This one was a sniper when I got her, so she has the Hit +20 skill, which isn't actually that bad but never ends up on any of my characters due to my dislike of archers. I ran her through several classes before deciding she'd make a decent Sorcerer. Mainly I just wanted more sorcerers.

Do you see a pattern with today's Logbook League? Well, let's spell it out for you: All of them have Mire Tomes equipped.

Mire is one of my favorite ways to troll the enemy AI. A character with a Mire tome can not respond to attacks 1-2 spaces away, and enemies will ALWAYS attack an available enemy who can't attack back, whether or not they actually have a chance of hitting this enemy. (Exception: Tiki paralogue.) On the other hand, a Mire-wielding Galeforce sorcerer can one-turn a small defeat-the-commander map with weaker enemies (though I'm not going to do that with this map, since I'd miss too much). If it had better hit, could be forged, allowed procs to activate and/or allowed doubling, Mire would be one of the scariest tomes in the game. So it's a bit of a double troll, especially in levels this low and stats this high: All the enemies head for the "defenseless" character who's probably the least likely to take damage, and/or you've got a character who can sit 10 squares away and zap everyone from the comfortable safety of the corner of the map.

If you haven't guessed yet, this battle's theme is Mire tomes.

Let's begin the battle. Sorcerer Riza, Katarina and Our Riza are on the left-hand side along with Chrom; Micaiah and Lingis are on the right.

Creepy Gray Guy, who I thought we killed already, is back and still creepy. More awesomely, Gaius has appeared, and is a bit surprised and unhappy to hear that they're supposed to kill Emmeryn.

I bet calling someone "sweet" is, to him, a compliment of the highest order. Also? I love Gaius. Not just because he's hilarious, but also because he is a kindred spirit. CANDY. SUGAR. GIVE ME IT.

Ahem, sorry about that.

Emmeryn wants Chrom to run away and take Lissa, despite the fact that he's perfectly capable of taking care of himself, especially since he remembered to Master Seal before fighting Creepy Gray Guy this time around. Creepy Gray Guy gets more creepy, and Falchion starts acting up. As usual, Marth does not explain.

Finally, I can actually move. Now, it would be really, REALLY easy to make this a one-turn map; it's a Defeat the Commander map and Galeforce + a Mire tome could take care of that little problem. However, I'd miss out on a few things if I did that, like Gaius and that chest by Emmeryn, along with two sparkly tiles. So we're going not going to do that. What I am going to do is highlight Gaius, and put Chrom supported by Riza just outside his attack range so Gaius doesn't die by throwing himself on Chrom's sword before Chrom can talk to him. Chrom is now within range of an axe-wielding fighter. Somehow, I'm not too worried about Chrom.

Next, you know what always annoys me about this level? If I let Chrom talk to Gaius, he gets stuck within attack range of a couple pesky Dark Mages who he can't retaliate against. You know what's not going to annoy me this time, thanks to Sorcerer Riza?

This guy. This guy is not going to annoy me this time. (Don't worry, he's not left with any health; I just didn't grab a screenshot at the right time to show the HP bar entirely drained.)

I have her take out the other Dark Mage from the safety of a nice corner. Next up, I have Katarina, and there's another fighter at the top of the stairs in the middle of the map and within range of Marth. Since Marth needs a bit of training before she becomes truly useful, I don't really want her attacked. It would probable be better for me to actually move Katarina closer and use the backup Nosferatu tome, so she has the extra movement to go sit on the stairs and block enemies from coming up them. Wait, no. She's a flier with Boots. Extra movement? Who needs extra movement?

By sitting her at the bottom of the steps, she's within range of a bunch of enemies. Now, the smart thing to do would be to equip Nosferatu and wait for the enemies to throw themselves at her on the enemy phase. However, that would mean another Death Montage, and those are going to wear thin if I use them every single chapter. So instead, she's going to sit there, and I'm going to laugh as the enemies try to attack her and fail repeatedly when any sensible person would realize the futility and go find another way in.

So instead, I'm going to have her Mire another Dark Mage across from the stairs, because I hate those guys.

I've got Lingis and Micaiah still left to move on the right-hand side, and at the foot of the right-hand stairs there's a thief (not Gaius) and two fighters. A bit to the left, there's also a Dark Mage. That's four, which is the perfect number because that's how many moves I have between the two of them and Galeforce.

Lingis crits on one of the fighters for 213 damage and the Dark Mage for 204 damage. Micaiah just takes out her Fighter and Thief with 68 damage a piece. And then it's the enemy phase.

The fighter approaches Chrom. Chrom uses Smacking It With A Sword. It's super effective.

Only two enemies were within range of Katarina, which means that I don't have enough screenshots to make a Dodge Montage yet. I'll save a screenshot for later.

All the enemies move closer except Creepy Gray Guy, and Panne appears. Apparently she was able to slip in with the enemies. On the note of slipping in, I'd really like to know how all those horsemen got in, or if Ylissean security is just that bad. Y'know, Panne is awesome on principle because Giant Killer Bunny, but it'd be nice if she stopped insulting humans, maybe? Please? No? Okay.

Marth informs Chrom that, despite the fact that the last person who insulted him had absolutely no good intentions, this one is actually on his side. Chrom is a very trusting person when Marth bothers to say things plainly. Well, she did just warn him about the impending attack on himself and his sister.

Now Gaius is close enough for Chrom to talk to. I laugh at this conversation every single time. The tone in which he says "sugar" cracks me up, not at all because I have had a similar response when cookies are around. He's willing to take candy as payment for working for Chrom now, and gold later...

Thanks to Sorcerer Riza, there aren't any enemies within range. However, there is a chest in Emmeryn's room, and I now have a thief with Locktouch. I move Gaius as far toward the room as possible and have him wait.

Next up, Katarina. There's a sparkly tile near her, and I have her go sit on it. I also have her take out a thief near the left-hand stairs. She crits for 216 damage.

Also...

Two cavaliers, a dark mage and a fighter are coming up the lower left-hand stairs, so I have Lingis and Micaiah take care of that little problem. Each one gets a cavalier, and Lingis crits on the fighter for 216 damage (I really want to know how she crits so much, and could she teach Riza please). Apparently Micaiah is learning a lot from fighting alongside her, since Micaiah crits against the dark mage for 195 damage.

There's a similar set of enemies coming up the lower right-hand stairs as well; and since dark mages have annoyed me so much in the past, I let Katarina take the guy out.

Sorcerer Riza is the only one left. I move her around to the right-side stairs and have her deal with the two cavaliers. I guess Lingis got the teach-Riza-crits message.

She takes out the other cavalier as well. Only Panne is left, and Emmeryn looks a little lonely. Besides, there's a sparkly tile in Emmeryn's room. I have Panne wait on it. I get a glass bow. Wonderful.

Now it's the enemy phase, and I finally get enough screenshots for a Katarina Dodge Montage. It's a little tricky because of the whole flier business, but think I managed well enough. I did have to use the "pause" button to avoid cutting off her head, which means that I didn't get the "miss" text; trust me that every single one of these guys missed.

And, as a bonus from the last enemy phase:

I think the thieves mistook "Dodge Montage" for "Dance Montage".

The last fighter walks up the lower right-hand stairs, and then it's my turn again.

I move Gaius to Emmeryn's room and have him wait next to Panne. He doesn't have enough movement to get the chest yet, but he will next turn. I want Riza to be the one to confront Creepy Gray Guy, so I move Chrom as far down the right-hand stairs as possible and switch him out with Riza. I have Lingis take out the two fighters from the Dodge Montage. Micaiah gets the two thieves. She crits on the last one for 204 damage. I decide to let Katarina have the final fighter, and she crits for 213 damage.

Now, there aren't really any more minions to take out, so there's nothing for any of the Logbook League to do. I end my turn early. Validar doesn't do anything on the next turn, so it's my turn again.

I send Gaius to go open the chest. He gets a Secret Book. It would be far more hilarious if he got Gaius's Confect.

Our Riza supported by Chrom moves toward Creepy and waits. I end my turn. He finally moves toward Riza on the enemy phase, which means that she can now attack him on my turn.

Riza doesn't respond, likely because who'd want to admit to recognizing that face, and a dual strike from her and Chrom takes him out nicely. Validar says that this is all wrong. I would like to disagree. "How could... you have known the plan..." he asks. Er... because some mysterious stranger brought us a message in the nick of time? Y'know, like it happens in all the stories. Not very genre-savvy, are you, Mr. Creepy?

Riza goes from 0 XP to gaining a level, because she has Veteran and Paragon equipped and this is a boss. Given that her stats are changing between every chapter now, I'm not going to keep doing the screenshots-of-points thing because it would be pointless. Pun intended.

I get a Heal, which is a very ironic thing for a guy that looks like he has skin problems to be carrying, and that's the end of the stage.

Emmeryn thanks Chrom, Phila apologizes for the poor security but doesn't explain it, and Marth tries her walking-away-without-explaining-anything trick. This time, Chrom catches her and thanks her, which gets a surprisingly pretty smile out of her. She also seems to be more interested in actually explaining things that she knows about some sort of averted future, which would have been nice while trying to avert said future, but hey, everything seems to have worked out.

Next we have a rather stand-offish Panne, and she explains why her names for humans seem to be primarily derogatory: apparently humans killed her people. Emmeryn demonstrates that kind words and a ton of empathy actually work in the case of our very angry bunny friend, and she decides to stick around.

Our Gray Guy has finally found a world with a similar color theme to himself to hang out in, but still doesn't seem particularly happy for some reason. Oh right, because he wasn't finished being evil. He is joined by someone who appears to be in need of pants, who claims to be Grima. I don't care if this is Grima, pants are still needed.

Chrom and Co. try to get Emmeryn to relocate to a safer spot, she agrees and the chapter ends. An Anna shows up on the map afterward, bringing good things.

I might have to actually start grinding some characters besides Chrom and Riza soon, if Anna keeps being this awesome.

If you look carefully... 69 DAMAGE LOL

Chloe Neo · November 13, 2015

69 damage...classic :D

Roflolxp54 · November 14, 2015

If you ever intend to do Donnel's paralogue...

1. Give Donnel Tiki's Tear/Tonics

2. Give him a forged bronze lance (+5 Mt, +15 Hit?)

3. Bring in Rallybots (preferably unarmed -- just unequip the weapon -- so mooks may target them instead of Donnel)

4. Have him pair up with a maxed out promoted unit (preferably one that boosts Strength and Defense and has Dual Support+ and Dual Guard+)

Optional: bring in a maxed unit with the Bond skill (passive healing for Donnel as long as they're 3 tiles or less from each other (preferably unarmed for the same reason as the Rallybots)

The tactics hear works even in Lunatic difficulty. For Lunatic+, Donnel just has to be more selective on which enemies to pick on.

Edited November 14, 2015 by Roflolxp54

Radiant head · November 14, 2015

Dunno how well that fits with the thread title though :p

NobodyInWonderland · November 14, 2015

@TheSilentChloey, if you want any tips on anything specific, feel free to PM me! I might not be the best at the game myself, but I DO know a few things and don't mind rambling about them.

@EvilElectro and ChloeC01, I was wondering if anybody would notice.

@Roflolxp54... I'm just gonna go ahead and put this in spoilers.

[spoiler=Donnel's Paralogue Strategy (This is NOT a playlog)]

I wasn't going to use quite the same strategy as yours there, but I was going to use a similar one. And you've mentioned some things I haven't thought of, too. I'm probably going to integrate the forged bronze lance and Tiki's Tears ideas into my strategy. My other ideas are as follows:

1. Bring along Paragon and All Stats +2 scrolls. As I've tested, they DO equip the moment you use them as long as skill slots are free, even in a battle. I could probably substitute Tiki's Tears for All Stats +2 or stack them, good idea.

2. Use a high-level sword-wielder (see #3 for who) to lure archers and kill the guys with axes. Theoretically, I can get Donnel to take no damage whatsoever this way, since the archers can't attack back; but the Axe Guys have a leg up via the weapons triangle.

3. Along with my Rallybot(s) (hello Katarina and Palla (who I finally went and got)), bring a sufficiently high-level (preferably maxed-out) Dancer Olivia (who doubles as that sword-wielder) and a Rescue Staffbot. Olivia lets Donnel get two strikes in - preferably against a defenseless archer - and Staffbot means he gets Rescued if the archer isn't sufficiently dead or Donnel is left in the range of something nasty. Plus, with Special Dance, that extra strike can pack a little more power.

4. Let's add Dual Strike+ to that list of skills on Donnel's supporting pair-up. And since Donnel's not going to be taking damage if he just goes after archers, speed for doubling is better than defense, which means that a Grandmaster Lucina works nicely. I tend to leave her as a Grandmaster anyway, because magic > lances for range in my opinion, despite the fact that I love her Lord outfit. If I changed my mind about defense and/or nice outfits I could reclass Catria or Spotpass Prince Marth, though.

After the archers are dead, with Paragon equipped Donnel's usually gained a level, and I can switch him with whoever his pair-up buddy is and go kill everything as normal.

@Radiant head, it fits with the rules I'm playing by, though. By using that strategy or a similar one, I can have Donnel "hit the enemy with the thing, heal as necessary, rinse and repeat" quite easily.

Edited November 15, 2015 by NobodyInWonderland

EvilElectro · November 15, 2015

@NobodyinWonderland, When It comes to Donnel's Paralogue, I just go to the top left corner, where there is an archer with chests next to him, and literally just shove him in that corner, though doing this without grinding in Lunatic or Lunatic+ is a HUGE pain.

NobodyInWonderland · November 17, 2015

@EvilElectro, keeping him out of the way once he gets that level isn't the problem. The problem is getting that level in the safest way possible. The challenge I'm setting for myself is getting that level without him taking damage.

So I'm not dead, in case anybody's wondering. I'm busy, but I've also been trying to level the main cast up since I can get Master Seals from Harvest Scramble, and I'm not going to use much besides logbook characters in the sand chapters because of that lovely movement penalty. And I decided that waiting till Second Seals were available to see any of the normal cast besides the Chrom-Riza duo holding their own would end up kinda boring and a bit unnecessary.

Edited November 17, 2015 by NobodyInWonderland

TheSilentChloey · November 17, 2015

Can't wait to see what adventures happen next :D:

EvilElectro · November 17, 2015

Are there any dlc's that can give you second seals?, because I need them pretty bad in my lunatic playthrough

Roflolxp54 · November 18, 2015

Are there any dlc's that can give you second seals?, because I need them pretty bad in my lunatic playthrough

Any DLC map that has a village that you can visit can randomly give you a Second Seal or even an Arms Scroll or statbooster, but that's very rare (since you can get one of many other items as well instead). You can also try and hope that an Anna merchant or a Streetpass shop may be carrying one.

Roster Rescue features treasure chests that pretty much have the same drop table as the villages in other DLC maps but require chest keys or Locktouch.

Edited November 18, 2015 by Roflolxp54

NobodyInWonderland · November 20, 2015

@EvilElectro, it's pretty much what Roflolxp54 said. I think I've gotten a Second Seal out of a DLC village about once in fifty times playing a map with two of 'em? Honestly it would probably take less time to just wait on Anna to show up on your map bringing gifts. I tend to get things like logs and ladles for the most part. However, if you want to try your luck, I'd recommend Champions of Yore. It's probably going to still be pretty tough if your units are underleveled, but if you do what I've been doing for the DLCs I want stuff from in the early game and bring along some overpowered logbook units, it should be pretty easy. I do not recommend Roster Rescue, as it's got those same disappearing/reappearing walls as Nah's paralogue, only worse, along with a bunch of tough enemies.

And now, on with the playthrough! Sorry for the delay, folks!

[spoiler=Some Pre-Chapter Miscellany]
A lot has changed since I last posted a chapter here.

First off, everyone besides Lissa, Maribelle and Panne has achieved Level 20 Advanced Class status. Lissa and Maribelle because I'm not going to bother with them until I get a shop with rescue staffs to grind them easily, and Panne because I need more Beaststones or a Second Seal in order to use her, and she's not exactly Second Seal priority. I guess I could turn her into a Bride class without wasting Second Seals, but I'd really rather not. It would just seem really, really weird to see Panne in that floaty sparkly dress. I know that's a silly reason, but hey, this is a silly playthrough.

Second, we've got some marriages! Vaike and Sully are successfully married, as well as Miriel and Ricken. Chrom and Riza have had the ability to S Support for a while, but I'm going to wait until Chapter 11 and let Chrom do his nice little post-battle proposal. If anybody wants me to comment on any supports between characters, I'll do that by request; but there's a lot of 'em and I don't feel like spending more time on pre-chapter rambling than on the actual chapter. A decent number of A supports have been achieved between various characters as well.

Anna has dropped by a few times with Second Seals, bringing the total in my inventory to 5. It'll be 4 after this chapter. I decided that it was completely necessary to use Riza as a Level 20 Grandmaster in a chapter before she switched classes for the sand chapters, because shiny coat is shiny.

Most of the other changes will be seen in this chapter, in which I probably use the word "squishy" way too many times...

[spoiler=The Charge of the Knight Brigade: Chapter 7]

We open the chapter with Lissa and Riza both commenting on the pain of walking long distances, and Chrom being apparently immune to exhaustion now. He's entirely unsympathetic to Lissa, but jokingly offers to carry Riza, despite the fact that Lissa looks like a much shorter, lighter person to carry. Sometimes I think that the game developers had a contest to see who could slip the most subtle hints about Chrom's romantic inclinations into the main storyline, and neglected to make sure that all the hints were about the same woman. They also neglected to make sure that all the hints were subtle.

A very nervous fellow whose name is apparently the same as his title (Hierarch) is along for the journey as well. Something about the fact that he doesn't have a name besides Hierarch tells me that he's not long for this world, and something about his nervousness tells me that he's only got himself to blame.

Some guys with axes show up - as though they think that sending Axe Guys after Chrom will work any better this time - and I think this is the quickest we've actually gone from the chapter opening to the battle preparation screen.

And now to introduce our characters. Actually, it's less introducing and more reintroducing; but since you haven't seen their shiny new stats and classes yet, let's do a quick run-through. Relatively quick, anyway, given that I'm bringing enough people along to actually fill all the allowed slots. This way you can also see all those fancy weapons I bought from Spotpass shops. So, as always, the Duo of Destruction...

The newlyweds, Vaike and Sully...

Kellam and Stahl, who even share a class now...

Frederick and Sumia (finally an end to the Great Knights)...

And a couple of sword wielders, Lon'qu and Gaius.

I guess I'll let Virion come along too, why not. He's a Bow Knight, maybe the Great Knight club will award him honorary status despite him being not that Great. (I'd apologize for the awful pun, but if I actually felt bad about it I'd remove it.)

I think I'll have to change his nickname from Squishy to Less Squishy. I didn't have the EXPonential Growth DLC the last time I tried to get him leveled up, and I also did not have Paragon, and these two things together made getting him through 40 levels a LOT less painful. He's still probably not going to use that bow much, but I figured I'd give him one just in case.

As you can see, I left Miriel and Ricken out. They're inheriting the title of Squishy from Virion. They're Sages now, but without decent defense or avoid they're still pretty fragile. So they get benched until further notice, further notice being "when I can reclass them multiple times and hope to heaven that they actually grow some defense in the process."

I do some shuffling around of map positions and I'm ready to go.

Do I have enough Great Knights on the field here? I'm not sure I've got enough. Honestly, it's not my favorite ending class for most characters because it doesn't fit my playing style, but the pair-up stat boosts are pretty good, and LUNA. Luna is awesome and I love it. I picked most of the classes I did either for better stat growth, or for skills that would let them kill things easier, and Luna will hopefully let everybody kill things easier; though with enemy defense being so low it probably won't make much of a difference right now.

Before the battle begins, we've got to listen to some guy named Vasto laugh like a maniac and mock the Hierarch. Given that said Hierarch is a cowardly traitor foolish enough to run out onto a battlefield looking for protection, I don't entirely blame Vasto for either the mockery or his quick disposal of the fellow. Mean, yes; weird, coming from an enemy, yes; but also understandable. Less understandable is that the Hierarch thought that running out onto the battlefield and announcing his guilt in front of the people he just betrayed was a good idea. I mean, I'm not a cold-blooded traitor who would betray the leader I've spent years serving, but if I were, I'd wait till the battle had started and then slip away quietly. And maybe make sure that the people I wanted protecting me were the winners before announcing my guilt.

Vasto is slightly more polite to Chrom - and by "polite" I mean doesn't call Chrom a pig, so it probably doesn't fit most people's definition of the word - and asks for the Ylisseans to hand over Emmeryn. Chrom declines, and finally it's time to fight.

Guess what? Riza is not being paired with Chrom today.

Shocking, I know.

I decided that today I'd have a rule for pair-ups: Characters must pair with characters who they have supports with, but cannot pair with any character who they are capable of S-supporting with. In other words, everybody's going to be paired up with somebody of the same gender who they have an A-support with. The exception is Riza, since 1) there were an odd number of slots and 2) she can support with anybody so I felt kinda like I was cheating by matching her up with somebody.

Therefore, today we've got Sully supporting Sumia, Virion supporting Frederick, and Lon'qu and Vaike getting along surprisingly well. Chrom has Gaius's back, and Stahl and Kellam are still buddies. Riza is going to hang out by herself, but she's a strong independent woman and has a fantastic coat. She'll be fine.

The first thing I do is send Sumia to attack the nearest wyvern rider, because GALEFORCE. Also I think it's funny that she can apparently carry around a Great Knight, horse and all, without a problem.

Another thing she doesn't have a problem with is this wyvern rider. She hit him for 31 damage. I forgot just how fragile these early-game guys are.

Of course she gets another turn now. I have her go attack another wyvern. I have her use the Brave Lance, since all the wyvern riders are carrying iron axes and I don't need to worry about her ability to counterattack at range. I meant to use the Brave Lance on the first wyvern rider, but forgot to equip it. She takes Wyvern Two out with another 31 damage, and that's the end of her turn.

Next, I realize that Kellam and Stahl were both stuck in the back of the troupe, and the only guy in attacking range is the closest barbarian. I have Kellam go deal with him. He's far enough away that Kellam has to use a spear to reach him, even with the movement boost from Stahl. This isn't exactly a problem; he hits for 43 damage, and the barbarian doesn't have nearly that much HP. One barbarian down.

I then have to decide between letting Gaius and Chrom or Vaike and Lon'qu deal with the closest archer, since neither of them are close enough to the battlefield to reach anything else. Since Chrom has had enough screen time, and I genuinely like Lon'qu, I send the latter. (I also like Gaius, but eh. I feel like sending Lon'qu.)

Y'know, I might find the Vaike a bit annoying - though he does have his good moments in a few supports - but the pair-up strength boost from his Warrior class is nothing to laugh at. He's giving Lon'qu 10 extra points of damage there.

Gaius can't reach anything from where he's standing, so I send Frederick and Less Squishy to take out the next barbarian. Frederick activates Luna, and informs the barbarian that he should pick a god and pray. This is all very awesome, except that Frederick started in an advanced class and hasn't had as many levels as everyone else, and therefore hits for only 33 damage, which is a bit less impressive after Lon'qu's 48 and Kellam's 43.

Next, the only character within range of anything is Riza. She can attack a thief. Coincidentally, the spot she has to stand in order to attack is directly next to Frederick and Lon'qu. This means she at least gets a few support bonuses. Not that she really needs them with Celica's Gale, 40 levels and a Magic asset.

Even though Riza has had enough screentime already, I haven't used Celica's Gale enough. I really should have. Now it's kind of unnecessary, since these guys she's fighting are pretty flimsy and literally fall over with a gust of Wind, but SHINY. Also very pink.

I have Gaius park himself behind Lon'qu, and that means it's enemy phase. Lon'qu gets attacked by a barbarian, because obviously Axe Guys don't get the memo that they should maybe try not going after the swordsmen for once. Lon'qu activates Astra. The guy goes down in one 25-damage hit.

I forgot to park Frederick out of range of an archer (or make him use his spear), so the nearby archer decides to go after him. Archer misses, Frederick does nothing because having a spear doesn't mean he can use it unless the brilliant tactician tells him to, and that's the end of that.

A wyvern rider heads for Kellam. Stahl Dual Guards, and then 40 damage is quite enough to deal with the problem. The next wyvern rider heads for Frederick and misses his swing by about a mile, and Frederick gets a nice 27-damage strike in. (Again, that contrast... Frederick is going to need some serious work once I get those Second Seals.)

After this, the battle switches to Sumia. Every wyvern rider in the vicinity heads for her. (That means three, in case you were wondering.) Every wyvern misses, and Sumia dispatches the first two with 31 damage and the third with 30.

And that's the end of the enemy phase.

I would say that the first order of business is to deal with the annoying archer, but I'd rather deal with every annoying enemy with ranged weapons. That means one barbarian with a hand axe and another archer must go as well. And how nice, Sumia's in range of both, and can even reach a sparkly tile while attacking the barbarian.

This is why I love fliers, especially with Galeforce: they can reach the problems that nobody else can. And also the other side of the battlefield on the second turn. (The archer who went after Frederick is highlighted, because I had ranged enemies highlighted. I unmarked the barbarian and the archer Sumia is after because it makes a better screenshot.)

Barbarian goes down in one hit, Sumia's weapon proficiency improves thanks to the tile, and she deals with the nearby archer just as easily with 37 damage. There's another sparkly tile; I have Riza sit on it before I forget about it. She gains 24 XP that could be better used after I give her a Second Seal.

Gaius hasn't had a turn to kill anything yet, so I let him have the archer who threatened Frederick. He lands a critical hit.

It's hard to get a good picture with the light show going on, but suffice to say that the critical hit is fantastic and it makes me happy.

The only enemy in range of someone who hasn't already finished their turn is the thief near Sumia. My choices for his removal are Frederick and Virion, or Kellam and Stahl. While Stahl hasn't been in the lead attacker at any point, he's had more screentime than Virion. I feel like letting Less Squishy do something, just this once, because I've ranted enough about him that I feel obligated to demonstrate his less-squishyness. Or at least show that he can take out this guy in one hit as well as anyone.

Meh. Gaius's critical hit was shinier.

Nobody else is within range to attack anything, and only three enemies are left: a barbarian, a wyvern rider, and Vasto. This battle is going to end after this enemy phase, since Vasto will head for Sumia and the other two have Virion or Sumia to choose from. It's a good thing Cordelia auto-recruits, since she's not going to get a chance to show up. I end my turn.

The barbarian decides to attack Virion - I probably would, too - and Frederick dual guards. The barbarian goes down with 35 damage. Then Vasto goes to attack Sumia. The battle has apparently not helped with his etiquette.

Hey, Vasto? I know she looks delicate, but... sorry to break it to you, Sumia's not being splattered anywhere today. If I'd brought Miriel along, you might have managed some splattering. Not Sumia, though.

This is the first time anybody today has actually needed to double the enemy. Sumia probably didn't need the Brave Lance for that; but two strikes later Vasto finds himself laying beside his wyvern, which is belly-side up and does not look like it intends to change that position. Vasto says, "You doves think... killing me will change anything? Heh..." Actually, I do think that killing him changes something. And that something is his manners, since it's hard to be rude when you're dead. I've met far more polite Risen than this guy, amusing as he is. He also mentions that his 'brothers' are storming the border. Because telling the people who just swept your battlefield clean that there's more enemies to mop up is an excellent plan. I mean, since the storyline isn't affected by having ridiculously overpowered characters, the plan is going to work, but if I were him I'd avoid mentioning my army's plans to the enemy with my dying breath, especially since he killed somebody not that long ago for telling plans to the enemy because it's a despicable thing to do. Doesn't seem like an appropriate way to use his final words, somehow.

More appropriate as his final words, there are of course the insults. You see how there isn't any blood on the ground near him? While you could say that this is because the game doesn't include stuff like that, I'd argue that it's because this guy bleeds sarcasm.

The final wyvern goes after Virion, who dodges and then gets a pretty respectable critical strike in. I'm starting to warm up to him a bit now that I don't have to baby him. Don't get me wrong, his personality is still pompous and I'd cheerfully join Sully in a boot to his face if he tried any of his lines on me, but in some of his supports he shows glimmers of actual intelligence. Besides, I like Inigo just fine - well, more than just fine, I like Inigo a lot - so it's not fair of me to judge his womanizing ways too harshly.

I know this is not a really good screenshot position-wise, but I couldn't let a screenshot of Virion Being This Useful pass. It's an unfamiliar feeling.

That's the end of the stage, and we FINALLY have heroes who are not Chrom and Riza.

I'm not sure that Sully did much of anything. I should probably have switched her out with Sumia for that archer so she could actually land a few hits. Hopefully I remember stuff like that next time.

Now Cordelia shows up, with the same dialogue that she usually has when she shows up in the middle of the battle. Except it's now conducted at the opposite end of the battlefield, with no enemies in sight. She then continues on to report to Phila about the attack on the border that Vasto already mentioned, except with more traumatic detail. I think she has PTSD, but somehow I doubt that she's going to get any counseling any time soon.

Emmeryn decides to return to the capital and hands off the Fire Emblem to Chrom. Chrom is understandably more concerned about his sister than the mystical MacGuffin, but his attempts to inform her that he will not leave her are unsuccessful. Lissa is even more insistent on going with Emmeryn and is denied as well. Phila attempts the same thing, and... actually succeeds, without a single argument. Okay then.

We get a bit of a break from the arguing while Phila tells Cordelia to stay with Chrom - a job she accepts willingly, of course - and then it's back to arguing. While I could continue to explain my opinion on heading straight back to the castle that was already broken into and leaving her strongest troops elsewhere, with only the protection of the same security who somehow let horsemen get past them, I think that Chrom does a pretty good job already.

Since we didn't have a lot of story before this battle, that means double the dialogue after it. It's back to Regna Ferox, where Sumia has apparently been taking ideas from the local warrior culture, since she smacks Chrom in the face for spacing out.* Her punches seem a little bit scarier to me this time around; most of the time she's still a fragile weakling at this point in my playthrough, but after seeing her take down all those wyverns I expect she has a pretty decent amount of strength behind that blow.

Flavia ships the two of them, because of course she does. Here go the 'subtle' hints again.

She calls Basilio her "insignificant other"; it's at this point in my first playthrough that I assumed the two were married already. The insignificant other shows up at this point to inform Chrom that Ylisstol has fallen and Emmeryn has been captured. He then says the most sensible thing I've heard so far.

The sad part is that this needed to be pointed out. I'm not joking here. I seriously think that maybe they should have figured how to not walk into traps sooner. Chrom also needs to be reminded that sometimes brains are necessary, because smacking things with a sword doesn't solve all problems automatically. This is news to him; but after Riza agrees that having plans might actually be helpful, he finally decides to not go marching straight into Plegia and destroy everything like the one-man army he is.

And so ends the chapter, with actual sense being made. Tune in next time for a break from Riza's shiny coat and my irrational love of said coat.

*Yeah, I know that it's made clear that Sumia got the idea from Phila. I'm joking.

Edited November 20, 2015 by NobodyInWonderland

TheSilentChloey · November 20, 2015

"Shiny coat is shiny"

*giggles* I love that line!!

Aside from that I agree about the entire "rude wyvern rider" needs some death and Emm walking into that trap was just too obvious. Also can't and don't dig the shipping of Chromia (Chro-mia lol).

[spoiler=My playthrough will eventually get to that point and I might actually add how I feel about the entire incident]

http://serenesforest.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=58567

That said I really think that Sumia gets waay too much attention in game than Riza/Robin/Chloey/Avatar with Chrom. One thing I noticed that is really common is that Lucina ships Chrobin pretty darn hard if you ask me. As well as M!Morgan if Chrom isn't his dad. Lucina basically states in her support with F!Robin if she isn't her mother that she should have been. So there is that to consider. Ah but I am rambling on a bit :XD:

Nice to see that Mildly Squishee Virion is not so squishee :D: I had fun leveling him up in Chapter 2. Miriel though was a pain in the ass. She had +3 stats then decided that she'd do +1 for the next level growth. :/

MewMewExorcist · November 20, 2015

I find that Virion/Ricken/Miriel tend to be more glass cannons than anything. Miriel can hit really, really hard, honestly, if you train her up right. She was one of my hardest hitters in my Lunatic playthrough (which I accidentally deleted, cripes.)

Great Knights! :D Luna is amazing, I agree. xD

NobodyInWonderland · November 21, 2015

@TheSilentChloey, I consider "shiny" to be a good reason for many things and this will probably influence this playthrough a bit. As for Chromia... well, when I'm playing MaMU, Sumia sometimes ends up married to Chrom because there's not a lot of options. I like other dads for Inigo (though, as I've said, I do think he's impossible to mess up as long as Olivia passes on Galeforce), and Sumia's the third best choice for Lucina's mom. On the other hand, I don't play MaMU that much. I've only played as FeMU without marrying Chrom once. I kinda restarted the game halfway through after I decided that it was just weird having Morgan as an only child.

@MewMewExorcist, "glass cannon" is definitely the right term for them. At the moment Miriel and Ricken are some of the hardest hitters on the team, not counting Riza who's gotten a lot more levels than anybody else. They don't even have the worst defense; Lonqu is a good example of really abysmal defensive stats, and Gaius had better not get hit with anything any time soon. The difference is that Lonqu and Gaius are good at dodging, and Miriel and Ricken are... less good at dodging. If I were trying to do a non-lazy playthrough where I didn't let the Avatar and Chrom bulldoze through everything in the early game, I'd probably make more use of Miriel's fantastic attack since it would be a bit more necessary. As it is, I'm still going to use 'em, but it'll be after I can get them a few more levels.

Alright, next chapter! There's not enough stuff that's changed since last chapter to make a special spoiler for it, so here's the summary: Riza has been reclassed and got another 20 levels, Cordelia has Galeforce, and a Streetpass team with a very nice shop showed up with both kinds of Seals for sale, so I've got another Second Seal. I also went ahead and reclassed Gaius to Hero so I can have him get Sol at my leisure, and I have plans for one more of those seals, so that means I have 3 Second Seals to play around with - 4 after this chapter. I'll have to think about what to use them for.

[spoiler=A Moving Story: Chapter 8]

The chapter opens on sand. Yep, that's it. Sand. Chrom is expecting a trap, but it looks like Gangrel isn't exactly worried about the angry guy with the sword who's headed for him. However, that doesn't mean that Chrom's able to stay out of trouble, because this is Chrom and things that need to be hit with swords must follow him wherever he goes.

The battle preparation screen shows up pretty quickly. And as usual, it's time to introduce our cast today. But before I do that, let's reveal what I reclassed Riza as!

If you didn't guess "Dark Flier" already, then you have underestimated my unholy love of Galeforce. I probably make it out to be a bigger deal than it really is, but it's useful in so many ways that it's impossible to properly break the game without as much of it as possible. Since I'm trying to make everyone useful in this playthrough I'll probably rely on it less than I usually do. I know, this is very sad and I should feel bad.

Anyway, on with the introductions. Chrom hasn't changed since the last chapter, but let's include him anyway along with Riza's new stats. She actually capped her magic stat in the process of getting her to Dark Flier Level 20, so I gave her Limit Breaker.

Cordelia just joined, might as well use her for a battle. She can hang out with Sumia. They can start a Dark Flier club or something.

I also managed to recruit DLC Palla. At least this wasn't nearly as difficult as recruiting Katarina. I think I found Roster Rescue more annoying than Apotheosis, though. Not nearly as difficult as Apotheosis; just a lot more annoying. At least in Apotheosis if you hit the things enough times and then head for the hills before enemy phase, you'll probably win eventually. There's no surprises. Roster Rescue is for people who thought that Nah's paralogue was far too straightforward, and those walls needed to be forming and disappearing while you're in a maze. And getting your best characters stuck in rooms in that maze. With a limited number of turns to kill certain enemies that are very far away from the rooms your best characters are stuck in. With reinforcements appearing from the second turn onward. And the things you need to kill appear to be the result of when a Revenant and the Hulk love each other very much, except uglier.

I apologize for the rant. Anyway, I have Palla, and for the moment I've got her as a Falcon Knight. She's joined by Falcon Knight Riza, who gets a Rescue staff for this mission. I've managed to pick up a few more Rescues from Streetpass and Anna, so I can spare a use or two.

Katarina returns, because since I went through that much trouble to get her, I'm going to use her. I even gave her the tome with her name on it, since I keep picking them up in the barracks. She is joined by another Avatar I got via Streetpass. I've upgraded this one a bit. She was originally a sniper. She also originally had much lower stats and none of the skills that she's currently sporting.

When did I do Tiki's paralogue? It's not even unlocked yet. (Just kidding; this one's from the Bonus Box.) And, since I've been remiss in my favorite strategy of using Celica's Gale as much as possible, Celica herself is joining us today.

You know how these sand chapters are annoying because none of your good tanks can really move much? You know how I'm a petty person who likes to go overboard in this playthrough with destroying any difficulties whatsoever that have annoyed me in the past? Well, if you didn't know about the last one, it's not that important. What is important is that today's theme is just how fast I can get the Logbook characters to run around this fairly large map. Besides the Logbook Boots trick (and thanks to the very helpful person who reminded me about it), we have three skills today that are going to help these characters run around the map with the speed of a hyperactive squirrel. Four, if you count Acrobat for Tiki. These skills are:

1) Galeforce

2) Movement +1

3) Deliverer (a.k.a. movement +2 in a pair up)

If I really wanted to go crazy with the maximum movement possible, I'd use Rally Heart and Rally Movement and I'd have made everyone Dark Fliers for the pair-up bonus; but at this point I think that the Logbook League isn't going to have a problem with getting pretty much wherever they want to go in a hurry.

And I think I'm ready to start.

Before the battle, some elf kid shows up. Definitely an elf; she's got the pointed ears and everything. Hey, the game has pegasi; elves aren't that far-fetched. A text box covers most of her besides the head, but since she's an elf I bet she's wearing a pretty dress and...

... that's definitely not a dress. I'm not sure what it is, but I don't think "dress" is the right word for it.

Y'know, I think I need to start a clothes drive for some of the characters in this game. Because obviously, some people are desperately in need of shirts. I'll even give one to Aversa if she promises not to try to murder me in my sleep as a thank you. It's going to be a long road till the poor shirtless denizens of this game are no longer shirtless, folks, but with your efforts the entire Sorcerer class will one day be able to put down their tomes without revealing too much of themselves to the world.

Anyway, clothes aside, Gregor has arrived! Nowi is not as happy as I am. I don't understand why. I mean, look at this face, isn't it the most innocent face you've ever seen?

Chrom doesn't seem very convinced, Nowi doesn't seem very convinced, and Lissa is calling him a creep. Good thing he's a forgiving fellow, since I'm planning on pairing her with him for this playthrough. While they are doing this another face shows up, apparently belonging to a guy called Chalard. This guy immediately starts making Gregor's face actually look like an innocent-baby face by comparison. It's pretty easy for Chrom to decide that Chalard is the bigger problem than the poor maligned Gregor, as threatening Grima's wrath upon everyone tends to be a pretty clear sign of who needs whacking with a sword the most.

And so the battle properly begins. I go ahead and pair Gregor up with Nowi for the moment, to move the two of them around more efficiently. And, since I'm using Deliverer today, I'll be pairing up everyone, including the Logbook units.

Chrom supports Riza, Sumia gets to be A-support buddies with Cordelia, Palla is joining Falcon Knight Riza, and Katarina is backing Drale. Celica and Tiki are the final pair-up for today's battle.

First things first: I want to clear all the enemies out of the range of the nearest sparkly tile so Nowi can see what's over there. Because sending a manakete to help out a manakete amuses me, Tiki is the first one I move. She goes after the cavalier at the bottom of the screenshot there. He's taken out by 68 damage-worth of dragon breath. Tiki and Celica are within range of the lower left-hand village; might as well go visit it because I'm easily distracted. I have Celica take out another cavalier on the way over with 75 damage and a flurry of pretty pink wind. Then I let Tiki be the one to actually visit the village.

Oh, in case you didn't know - if you have two characters with Galeforce paired up, you can actually get three moves out of them by switching them for the second enemy. Theoretically, you'd get more kills by letting everybody with Galeforce fight by themselves. In practice, by the time your army of Galeforce users wipes out everything in the vicinity, all the enemies are probably on the other side of the map and you're wasting turns trying to get your army to them. By using the Galeforce pair up strategy, you can get a lot of mileage by moving a pair as far as possible, killing an enemy, moving again, switching who's in the lead and killing another enemy, moving again, and by that time they have a group of enemies all to themselves or they're bidding a less-than-fond farewell to the commander.

Anyway, the village.

Y'know, I might be able to get Master Seals in Harvest Scramble, but it's a bit tedious to farm enough for everyone, so this Master Seal will definitely come in handy. I'll probably give it to Gregor.

Back to rescuing the little girl. I still want her to go see what's on that sparkly tile, after all. Let's have Riza and Chrom go kill the dark mage near the upper right-hand village, since he's the current problem with this plan. Ignis activates for 64 damage, and is completely awesome, and when I attempt to take a screenshot I realize that the whole screen-goes-blurry effect is not the nicest thing to get a picture of. Next time I'll try to get a screenshot when it first activates. At least the flurry of flower petals at the end is pretty.

This means that the sparkly tile is now safe for Nowi. She has a nice civil chat with Gregor - I guess she decided he was a good person - and their relationship improves.

There's a ridge that runs along the right side of this map, and at the very end of it is a myrmidon who is probably up to no good. I end my turn by having Riza - that's Our Riza, by the way - take him out. 51 damage deals with him just fine.

Before we send out the actual fliers with ridiculous range, let's see how Cordelia does against this axe guy. He's the fighter in the upper right-hand corner. Correction: He was the fighter in the upper right hand corner. He is no longer fighting, nor is he in the upper right hand corner any longer.

Sumia crits for 90 damage against the myrmidon near the same village. I then let her visit said village. I get another Rescue staff; told ya it was fine if I used those a bit. Not that I have yet.

I decide to use Falcon Knight Riza next. Remember the village that Tiki visited? A little bit to the south and right of that, there is a Dark Mage. Falcon Knight Riza has 13 movement. I think I'll just drop her on the other side of the map now.

She hits the guy for 55 damage. Nice.

There's three villages on this map, and I think it will be amusing if I manage to visit all of them on the first turn. I send Falcon Knight Riza toward the lower right-hand village. She's one square away from being able to visit it, but that's fine, since I can get an extra turn out of Palla. I have her attack the Dark Mage in front of the the last village. Then I let Palla visit the village. I get a Second Seal, which is awesome and I am happy.

I have one pair that hasn't moved yet; that's Drale and Katarina. There are three enemies over on the left-hand side, above the village Tiki visited. These are the only three enemies within range of Drale, so I have her fly over and attack the Dark Mage that's the farthest south. She hits him with an axe for a good 59 damage. I decide that I want to have someone near Nowi to make sure that nothing nasty gets by me while I'm busy looking at all the things to look at, so I have her finish off the fighter near Our Riza and Chrom. She crits for 177 damage, and needless to say, the fighter is very much dead.

The enemy phase begins, and the first enemy to move is the fighter near Tiki. Since I don't want to have Nowi fighting this time around, we won't be seeing her as a shiny awesome dragon for now; so here's a shiny awesome dragon to tide you over until Nowi is a shiny awesome dragon with better stats.

SHINY. YES.

A dark mage attacks Drale and gets smacked with an axe to the face for 60 damage. The myrmidon near Drale experiences a similar fate. A cavalier goes for Palla afterward, and it doesn't go very well for him; she neatly crits for 171 damage. The Dark Mage and the Fighter in the upper left-hand section of the map move toward the right side, and a cavalier near Chalard decides to go sit right in front of the guy for some reason. Then it's the player phase.

I don't very much appreciate those two rascals in the right-hand corner heading for poor sweet defenseless Nowi, so I send Tiki and Celica to take care of them. Not at all because I want to see Shiny Awesome Dragon again.

That used to be a Dark Mage, by the way. Celica takes out the fighter . Now, there's one sparkly tile left at the bottom of the map; I think I'll have Tiki wait on it. She gains 26 XP that she doesn't exactly need.

Now I have a little problem. I'd like Chrom and Riza to actually participate in the killing of the boss. There isn't any special dialogue from doing that, but after seeing so much of those two in the beginning I feel like I'm abandoning the main characters or something. Problem is, they're not close enough. Well... in the meantime, might as well have Palla and Falcon Knight Riza deal with the other nasty things around him.

There's a fighter, a cavalier and a myrmidon left, all in a row in front of the boss. Palla takes out the fighter with 56 damage, Falcon Knight Riza gets the cavalier with 54, and guess what? I've got one more turn from her, and she has a rescue staff. Excuse me for a minute while I chuckle at Riza rescuing herself.

Our Riza can go ahead and deal with the last two enemies now - the myrmidon and the ugly. Er, I mean Chalard. Our Riza is hitting almost as hard as the Logbook Rizas now; 51 damage and that's one myrmidon down.

Chalard asks if we dare defy the Grima, the god of annihilation, and given that I personally am not interested in being annihilated, I do think I'll go ahead and defy him if it means I'll avoid that. Oh wait - wasn't Grima the weird pantless person from before, with Creepy Gray Guy? Let me put this Grima fellow on the list of beneficiaries for that clothes drive, I forgot about that. And anybody who has pants to spare, won't you please help out your poor local Grima, god of annihilation, who seems to have annihilated his pants?

Riza lands a critical strike for 129 damage on Chalard, which probably destroyed Chalard's pants along with the rest of him. If he was wearing any; I didn't really look too closely at his Dark Mage outfit, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't include pants.

Chalard says that his life force is Grima's, though I don't really think that's what Grima needs right now. I guess it's not like Chalard has much to offer in the way of clothes, but maybe one of his myrmidon buddies could have loaned Grima one of those long coats or something in the meantime?

Anyway, with that the stage is complete.

It was inevitable that Riza and Chrom would end up being the heroes again. With all the enemies gone, Nowi and Gregor are of course safe. Nowi doesn't seem to be very happy at first, until Gregor reminds her that the enemies being gone is a good thing. I'm not sure what those two were up to while hanging out in the center of the map and watching the Logbook League race around the battlefield in the most haphazard patterns possible, but at least they're friends now.

Gregor recommends that Chrom hire him, because beneath the innocent-baby face lies a very capable mercenary. I probably chuckle more than I should at his comment that he is perfectly reliable even though he just finished killing his former employers. It's more accurate to say that he stood by and watched the massacre unfold on his former employers; it's not like he could have stopped it even if he wanted to. I suppose it's the thought that counts.

I honestly think that Gregor is the funniest first-gen character in this game, at least according to my sense of humor. I continue laughing at his attempts to convince Chrom that he's definitely the guy for the job of smacking things with a sword. Chrom finally gets tired of listening to him get more ridiculous by the sentence, and Gregor's hilarious and fumbling impromptu resume comes to an end when Chrom hires him with the reasoning, "Why not."

Nowi was apparently being sold as a slave, since somebody thought it was a good idea to enslave a freakin' dragon, because mistreating something that can eat your face and call it a light snack is always an excellent plan. Her age comes up in an attempt to make the people playing this game a little more comfortable with her outfit. The Grimleal - in other words, the guys we just finished clearing off the battlefield - are explained as followers of Grima. It is not explained why they want to follow Grima, and Riza looks just as puzzled as I feel. Nobody bothers to ease her confusion or mine.

And so ends the chapter, not with a bang, but with an awkward suggestion from Flavia that everybody go to sleep.

Edited November 21, 2015 by NobodyInWonderland

The Laziest Awakening Playthrough Ever: The Playlog

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