fe8 I suck at FE8... and I don't know why

[GlitchWarrior]

Exactly what it says on the tin, I just reached chapter 9 (Eirika's route) and Garcia, Franz, Vanessa and Colm are ALL DEAD. And keep in mind that this is on NORMAL DIFFICULTY. I'm not even on Hard mode and I'm struggling this bad. I also promoted Ross into a Fighter but since Chapter 9 has a huge water area I'm regretting it. Kyle is promoted too and he's a Paladin. I got the Orion's bolt, and I'm probably going to use it on Neimi. But the point is, I made some REALLY bad decisions within the past TWO DAYS. And just when you thought it couldn't get worse... I forgot to put Ephraim's stuff in the supply convoy before he set out for Grado. Ugh, will my stupidity never end?

The good news is, I have enough units to outsource them, but my point still stands.

DEATH LIST

Garcia: killed by Joshua while I was attempting to recruit said myrmidon

Franz: Ballista... critical?

Vanessa: Poor command decision left her in archer range

Colm: While trying to get him to the western chest room in Chapter 8, an Archer was firing at Eirika. I thought she could serve as an ample distraction for Colm to sneak by. Didn't work.

[De Geso]

Hey, it happens man. Take your mistakes in stride and learn from them, and you won't suck next time. :)

[Dragoncat]

For future reference, never make Ross a fighter, pirate is way better.

[Xander]

3 hours ago, GlitchGabe said:

Exactly what it says on the tin, I just reached chapter 9 (Eirika's route) and Garcia, Franz, Vanessa and Colm are ALL DEAD. And keep in mind that this is on NORMAL DIFFICULTY. I'm not even on Hard mode and I'm struggling this bad. I also promoted Ross into a Fighter but since Chapter 9 has a huge water area I'm regretting it. Kyle is promoted too and he's a Paladin. I got the Orion's bolt, and I'm probably going to use it on Neimi. But the point is, I made some REALLY bad decisions within the past TWO DAYS. And just when you thought it couldn't get worse... I forgot to put Ephraim's stuff in the supply convoy before he set out for Grado. Ugh, will my stupidity never end?

The good news is, I have enough units to outsource them, but my point still stands.

DEATH LIST

Garcia: killed by Joshua while I was attempting to recruit said myrmidon

Franz: Ballista... critical?

Vanessa: Poor command decision left her in archer range

Colm: While trying to get him to the western chest room in Chapter 8, an Archer was firing at Eirika. I thought she could serve as an ample distraction for Colm to sneak by. Didn't work.

I can try to give you some advice based on what I remember of the game. I assume you're not going to restart to save Vanessa? In this chapter you should get another flier to replace Vanessa. Keep her save and spoonfeed her levels until you're ready to promote and she can be one of the best units in the game. You'll want to make sure you promote her to Falcon Knight over Wyvern even though you don't have access to triangle attack without Vanessa, as she needs the defense. You should be fine on normal mode, especially with the characters you have, my advice would be to primarily use Kyle, Tana (Falcoknight), Neimi (Ranger), Gerik (he's so strong it doesn't really matter what you promote him to, but since we're already using Neimi, might as well go Heroe dropping Ross), and Tethys. Those are just my suggestions. If you find yourself struggling right now I think you'll have no problem if you stick to training that small core of characters. If you're still struggling free to use Seth and Cormag as well, though it looks like you don't want to use Seth, and they may make the game too trivial on normal mode. Good luck.

[serifAizawa]

4 hours ago, GlitchGabe said:

Garcia: killed by Joshua while I was attempting to recruit said myrmidon

It's possible to bait all the enemies outside of Joshua's range, and then have Natasha safely rescue her.

 

4 hours ago, GlitchGabe said:

I also promoted Ross into a Fighter but since Chapter 9 has a huge water area I'm regretting it.

Even as a Pirate Ross' movement is rather low in water so it wouldn't have helped that much. Then again, Pirate Ross is infinitely more better than Fighter Ross since Berserker is far better than Warrior, and Garcia is a better Hero imo.
 

4 hours ago, GlitchGabe said:

Colm: While trying to get him to the western chest room in Chapter 8, an Archer was firing at Eirika. I thought she could serve as an ample distraction for Colm to sneak by. Didn't work.

You'll be fine, this is one of the few FE games with buyable chest keys.


Anyways, I'd use Kyle, Tana (I'd personally go Wyvern but Falco also works), Neimi (Ranger), Gerik (I'd say Ranger, unless you drop Ross), Tethys, Cormag (go WK!), Ross (Hero,) and Saleh. 
Most of the other units around this time are either mediocre (the other prepromotes like Innes or Dozla), they join too late to be really useful (Duessel on Eirika route for example) or they're absolutely horrendous (the other two trainees come to mind)

If you want to break the difficulty curve, just use the Tower of Valni and get everyone to level 20/20, now you'll have an invincible army. I'd advise against this because there's virtually no challenge anymore.

[Paper Jam]

Here's something I wish I had known about Joshua from the beginning: If Natasha is the only blue unit within his attack range, he won't move to attack her. You don't need to bait him out.

[expshare]

Plan out your strategy carefully, calculate harder, reset if something goes wrong. Use Seth / high level units whenever your other units aren't enough to handle a situation. Throw away bad units, focus on good units. Either look for reputable advice on which characters and classes are worthwhile, or look up the bases/growths/weapons and try to decide for yourself. Have it in your mind to make each turn perfect. Factor in terrain when you form your strategy (try to decide where you would ideally place your units.) Use units who don't want EXP to weaken enemy units so that your units which do want EXP can finish them off. Determine which units will double ahead of time.

[Fortron]

yeah all i can say is learn from your mistakes make a better strategy  check enemy move range check to see if they can kill them but a ballista critical that is just awful luck

[GlitchWarrior]

Thanks for the pointers! A lot of people are telling me to use Tana, Tethys, Saleh, Gerik, and Cormag when they're recruited and keep Kyle and Seth ready to whoop everyone while also using Ranger!Neimi and Hero!Ross. All of these are great ideas! I'm also hesitant to NOT  recruit Amelia because kill-feeding her is always an option in FE8 and she actually does something as a Cavalier. Unfortunately her recruitment is harder without Franz. Plus, a third Paladin would benifit me in the long run. Debating on Gilliam's promotion- General has better stats, but GK can keep up with my army- oh, my gosh, what do I do?

Breathe, Gabe. Breathe. You still have Seth, Kyle, Ross and Neimi. And you also have Joshua and Moulder tagging along, too, so you'll be fine... right?

Anyway, I was debating on Joshua's promotion too, but I realized that since I don't have a second Lockpick and since Assassins are generally worse than Swordmasters in the long run, Swordmaster is a better option. And I'll probably recruit Rennac later for opening stuff anyway. Ewan as a Druid could also help, but only if I can get him that far. And lastly, there's the matter of Moulder's, but I'll probably just go Bishop instead of Sage, as Slayer is better for an at-base healer.

[MacLovin]

what edition of fe8 we talking?

[GlitchWarrior]

It's almost a regular game, but I added the "Qualities of Life" patch to make things easier on myself. You know, adding Danger Area and on-field health-bars. But I'm still failing...

[eclipse]

I'll assume you're taking into account basics such as weapon triangle, and making sure your tiny units (like Vanessa) aren't wielding super-heavy weapons (like Steel Lances) during the enemy's turn.

If not, start there.

[GlitchWarrior]

So... I played chapter eight. Amelia suicided onto Kyle... because I had to defend Eirika somehow. But I'm trying to be careful with what I do have for now. In chapter 10 two units that were VERY highly reccomended to me, namely Gerik and Tethys. I know that Tana recruits Innes and Innes recruits them. And then Gerik recruits Marisa. So... based on all that, I could have four new units here, probably only 3 if I screw up with Marisa. Gerik is apparently a good unit to use so he should reach  her easily. Also, apart from Amelia there were no deaths but I'm debating not even counting her as she wasn't recruited. Artur, Gilliam and Joshua are levelling well, though.

[GlitchWarrior]

...

 

I can only say Chapter 10 went... interestingly. I got four new units, but it was at a net loss of one. And that one wasn't even someone I could do without- it was KYLE. As in, the PALADIN. Crud. Let's just hope Gerik is as good as you all seem to think he is.

[GlitchWarrior]

So, I made it to Chapter 13, and within that time Gerik, Neimi, and Moulder have promoted to a Hero, Ranger, and Bishop respectively. Saleh is as good as I've heard, as is Tethys, and Tana is performing quite well. And I also got Ewan and made him a Shaman. Cormag gets recruited here,  so I need to excercize caution.

Also, I haven't been using L'arachel, but I want to recruit Rennac next chapter, preferrably without emptying my wallet. Any ideas?

[Terrador]

thankfully, the "talk" command knows no level.

[Soviet Cut]

Sacred Stones has normal difficult? Difficult Mode is easy enough, you should've tried it first or play it on Ephraim's route.

Anyways, if you are having difficulties with the game, just use Seth to kill everything ever ever. About Rennac, recruit him with L'arachel, just don't bring one unit. Be sure to use Javelins and Hand Axes on enemy phase because it's always nice to chip bow users and mages.

About Joshua, if you aren't playing the japanese version of FE8, he will not target Natasha.