Revelation Capture Run

[Garrett]

Hey there, everyone! I'm back, fresh from a bracing experience with Fire Emblem: Awakening Lunatic, with a new Fire Emblem: Fates run courtesy of my cousin opening his mouth and proposing a challenge: Complete Revelation using the Captured bosses, in similar fashion to what I did on my last Lunatic Conquest run (topic here). He read through my report and laid down the gauntlet: "If they're as good as you claim, do it without generics like Kento and Ren," he said. *Sigh* I hate my cousin sometimes.

So, what are the rules, 'cause there's no way he'd let me do a run like this without imposing a few restrictions on me. That said, he did allow some pros, but l'll get to them in a second. Here they are:

• Lunatic difficulty. I can't play the lower difficulties any more.
• Male Corrin & Azura pairing, with Corrin having Cavalier as his Secondary class. Why Cavalier? He'll be the only one capable of using the Shelter Skill, and Aegis is always nice to have. I found the Shelter Skill very useful in the earlier Conquest maps, especially when I was forced to deploy small numbers.
• Orochi will serve as my kidnapping unit because she has the benefit of being available earlier than Niles -- Chapter 11 vs. Chapter 17. If there's no Boss to capture in a specific map, she won't be deployed. Plus side -- she's a decent Mage. Downside? She'll get her levels solely from her recruitment chapter and Paralogues. Also, piss-poor Speed. *Ugh*
• If a main-story unit joins mid-level -- a good example being Gunter in Chapter 7 -- I'll use them for that Chapter. Once complete, they'll see use in DLC maps to build supports for the purpose of Paralogues. More-or-less the same as what I did in my Conquest run, so nothing new here.
• No generics -- so that means no handy Rally whatevers from Kento, and no Shuriken breaker Mizuki either.
• Conquest & Birthright exclusive Bosses allowed -- Hello Haitaka, hello Kumagera. Hello Daniela from Birthright too, so at least I'll have a competent Magic user. All three recruited via Logbook. NOTE: I raised the money for this by buying Kazuma from my Logbook, who was a Samurai I recruited on Conquest with Quick Draw. He then did the money DLC, so I avoided levelling Corrin and Azura. When I was finished I left myself with the starting amount of Gold: 5000.
• DLC, Battle Rewards, and Visit Rewards allowed. Daniela will likely be my Great Lord because I imagine Azura will have her Skill tree filled already.

So, now that I've outlined the run, here are the characters I'll be using. Courtesy of Orochi being unavailable until Chapter 11 is completed I'll be working with a very limited roster of characters. In fact, I'll have only 5 characters for much of the early run. Oh, yay!

• Candace, Chapter 12. She's a Nohrian Adventurer with a quirky battle model. What makes it quirky? Its unique -- as such, she can't change classes. The only Skills she'll net at all are innate or granted via DLC. That said, I used her in my Conquest run, and she was actually useful on account of her weapon and staff ranks and high Strength.
• Daichi, Chapter 14. He's a Hoshidan Basara with no unique Skills outside his innate list. Poor Magic to boot. Might salvage him as a Grandmaster; time will tell.
• Daniela, Logbook. She's the only unit in the entirety of Birthright who comes with a unique Skill outside her innate listing, and that is Savage Blow. Given how I abused this particular Skill on my Conquest run, I'm happy with this development. Daniela will more than likely be my Great Lord as well. Charm would stack nicely with Inspiration. She may be an option for Witch too; the boost to Magic growth would be nice.
• Funke, Chapter 12. Another Nohrian Adventurer. The only way I see to help this guys poor growth rates is to turn him into a Dread Fighter and pray. Not sure if its worth a Dread Scroll though. More than likely he'll turn into a Speed-boosting Pair-Up mule.
• Gazak, Chapter 18. I'd be excited if he didn't come so bloody late! Chapter 16 and 17 are already looking like a pain in my rear end. Still, once I get him, he'll wreck things. The Nohrian Berseker with the fugly mug was one of most consistent performers on my Conquest run, and I doubt that'll change.
• Haitaka, Logbook. You have no idea how relieved I was when my cousin told me he'd let me use the Bosses usually restricted to specific routes, as this meant Haitaka was available to me. I can't say anything bad about Haitaka. On my last Conquest run he was the lynchpin of so many early chapters I may as well have called the game Haitaka Emblem. And when the others started coming into their own and I could drop Rally Defence, he absolutely wrecked things with Rend Heaven.
• Kumagera, Logbook. MY TANK! This guy, like Haitaka, was one of my key players in my last Conquest run. So happy I can use him for this run.
• Llewelyn, Chapter 12. Looking at his stats and growths, he'll be a glass cannon. Hero will probably be his best class. Unless I go Vanguard? Choices, choices.
• Lloyd, Chapter 12. He's got better Strength and Speed growths than his brother, but even worse Defensive growths. Still, he might squeak by as a Hero.
• Nichol, Chapter 15. Nichol was the standout of my Conquest run; hands down, no question. He killed everything I needed him to, he had great mobility, and amazing utility. He was the main component of many of my strategies. That said, it was Kento (Rallyman) and Nanoha (Rally Magic + Luck) who really allowed him to shine. Without those boosts I'll likely have to temper my expectations a little. He'll mirror my Conquest Nichol -- he'll finish as a Trample-equipped Dark Falcon, though I may mix in Grandmaster this time for Ignis. Time will tell.
• Senno, Chapter 18. He comes so late, and offers so little, I'm not even sure I'll bother. Seal Magic and Lucky Seven are unique to him on Lunatic, sure, but at best I see him as a gold battery.
• Tarba, Chapter 18. Again, he comes very late. Unlike Gazak he has none of the latter's unique Skills. Still, he has great growths in key areas. Not sure what way I'll work his class, to be honest. He has potential in a few places.
• Zhara, Chapter 18. Another great unit who comes to the party late. Zhara was my Lodestar in Conquest and finished his journey as a Vanguard. He comes with innate Sol, Countermagic, and Pass on Lunatic. Sol turned him into an HP battery, Charm aided the other units, and Pass lot him knock gaps in defensive lines.

And that's it, folks. As of the writing of this I'm right at the start of the run, ready to tackle Chapter 7. I imagine the biggest challenge in the early game will be my lack of units; once I start filling in the roster, things will be easier.

[Garrett]

So, Chapter 7 was actually quite interesting from a tactical standpoint. If I hadn't mucked about with classes, though, it would have been fairly straightforward. But I got cocky.

Usually you'd have either Jakob or Felicia to serve as a healer at this stage, but since I'm not using them -- or generics from the logbook -- my sole source of healing at the minute outside healing items happens to be Azura's personal Skill, which restores 10% of max HP. I also happen to only have Corrin, Azura and Haitaka as deployable units.

I also made what I thought was a good decision, which was making Corrin a Sky Knight, but this ultimately made things far harder than they needed to be. You see, I ran through whatever Skirmish maps I was given -- something completely unavailable in Conquest, and something my cousin had also forgotten about. When I asked him how this fell for the rules he told me to "tear on, they're like DLC", so I'll use abuse them maliciously.😈 Gold allowing, of course.

From these Skirmishes, I got perhaps the best luck ever -- lots of gold from Event tiles and drops, and a Heart Seal for good measure. Corrin learned Elbow Room and Shelter during these battles' courtesy of the Heart Seal, and I used the extra gold to buy a Partner Seal. Since he's S-ranked Azura already -- Trust Seed and Pair-Up abuse -- I was able to shift him into Sky Knight to begin pushing for Darting Blow and Camaraderie as soon as he learned the Cavalier Skills. Haven't got the latter Sky Knight class Skill yet but it's a 10% HP recovery which rises to 20% with Azura nearby. It'll do until I can recruit Daniela.

Why is this bad, though? The plethora of archers and a fog of war mechanic I'd completely forgotten about! Corrin can't survive a round with archers yet, and Azura is famously squishy. So I was forced to push forward slowly with Haitaka in the lead. This was alleviated somewhat when I got Gunter -- he provided Haitaka with +4 Defence in a Pair-Up, which was as good as a Rally Defence. Once that was in place Haitaka, whose weapon rank with Spears is B, hefted his Guard Naginata and wrecked some shit.

I haven't played Revelations in a donkey's age and this battle showed it. Still, thoroughly enjoyed it.

[Garrett]

Finished work earlier than expected, so I picked up this file again and decided to run through two of the early Paralogues I've unlocked. Mozu and Shigure, if you're wondering.

Mozu's was a complete cake-walk. I usually try to feed her a few levels, which makes it harder than it needs to be at times, but this time that wasn't an issue since she wouldn't be used again. Corrin was also a Sky Knight with Shelter; all I had to do was fly him clear of the Faceless and pick her up. Haitaka was fit to easily deal with the Faceless near the starting position. Any damage he did take was addressed by Azura's personal Skill.

Shigure's Paralogue was more interesting. The shifting boat mechanic is what ultimately allowed me to complete this map using only three characters, and without a dedicated healer. Actually surprised I managed it with only three units!

Corrin was close to levelling up, so I went in with a Heart Seal equipped and waited until he levelled up once as a Sky Knight. With that accomplished it was back to Nohr Noble and sword usage to counter the assortment of axe-wielding enemies. This chapter, even as early as Chapter 8, throws a lot of Berserkers and Sorcerers at you. The upside of this? Lots of experience! I was fairly lucky and got an Umbrella as a gift weapon between my earlier skirmishes, so I gave that to Corrin, whilst Haitaka got my Dual Naginata. Corrin ended up maxing his level at 20 against the promoted units and Haitaka came out at 15. There was a lot of moving about; using the shifting boats to my advantage, and no small amount of controlled retreating. But I managed it first time!

[Garrett]

Chapters 8, 9 and 10 were a breeze. Nothing much to report; Azura's singing has increased her level really high and I've got lucky with a few Defence and Resistance growths, I've promoted Corrin, and Haitaka's well above the level-curve as well. The gold from skirmishes and event tiles, coupled with what I already had squirrelled away, allowed me to recruit Daniela at the end of Chapter 8. The 10,000 gold from Chapter 9 allowed me to buy Kumagera as well, so I've recruited all the logbook Bosses allowed by my cousin.

Chapter 10 was notable solely for the items dropped. Nearly lost Haitaka to a rush of mages, but that was more from me being cocky than anything else.

Chapter 11 was difficult solely in the first three turns. The trick was dealing with whatever enemies could reach Orochi. She would die in a single round of combat on Lunatic outside a miraculous dodge on her part, so I had to strike out early and kill the threats without exposing myself too much on the Enemy Phase. Using a limited number of units made this more difficult than it would usually be. Managed this by equipping Daniela with a Calamity Gate to combat the attacking Ninja and buffing her with Rally Defence; even with this she was brought close to death, but I scraped by. Managed to baby Orochi through Chapter 11 as well, and she came out at level 11 and quite close to C rank in tomes.

With Chapter 11 done I've also recruited Orochi, so I can finally start grinding supports amongst the main cast the same way I did on my Conquest run on the EXP map -- so as not to farm gold -- to unlock the paralogues. I'll be able to add Candace and Funke, both of whom are Adventurers, and Llewelyn and Lloyd, both of whom are Berserkers. I notice a lot of axe-wielding glass cannons in my future.

Going to tackle Kana's Paralouge next to nab the twins, hopefully netting Orochi a few more levels in the process.