That moment when your entire party is statscrewed

[Gradivus.]

everyone got screwed hard except hardin catria and shiida, just wait until i post lategame!

[spoiler=C1-3]C1 standard Jagen to the fortress with Silver and finish off with others for experience. The boss dodged Jagens lance, so I had to do random wrys action and spam ranged things until he was down. 20 turns because of this loldodge with no savepoint. Draug got a level with Speed, Cain one with Str and Abel one with speed. Each one had HP too and some random skl and lck.

C2: Jagen, Barst and Draug can team up against the eastern squad. There was only one Pirate that can be killed with Jagen + Barst, then Draug held the chokepoint against the Hunter (if Draug goes exactly above Barst, Draug can chip the Hunter away with Iron Lance since the AI chooses Barst for their ranged attack, while the Thieves go so that the Hunter can't get 2 range against Draug and Barst can get away. Draug also procced a Def which will be important for C3. The Pirate directly on the left needs 8 Spd for Ogma to 2RKO, so I rigged for that and healed Ogma after EP 1. Pretty much a standard strat, though later on against the Castor group, I had to 'choke' the Hunters by moving bulky units to the right of the bridges (Barst and Jagen could tank Hunter + Pirate) Pirate could be killed easily with a Jagen ep + Barst + maybe Javelin combo. I used a savepoint for the bosskill, which could be done with Iron!Barst ep + Jagen + Ogma + Cain iirc. Feeding Cain a bosskill turned out to be failure because he was given Sword rank over Lance rank (while Ridersbane > Mercurius before C23). Turns: 12/32

C3 I used a pretty much standard strat of getting the devil axe by Turn 2 and use it to weaken Fighters with Barst and having Castor, Draug and Shiida go up on the left hand side. Draugs Def proc allowed him to take only 1*2 dmg from a Thief while being unequipped so he wouldn't have to confront a Fighter, while Julian could dodge-choke the Fighter that would aggro eventually. Defeating the Hunters was pretty easy, the boss are could be cleaned up with Jagen + Barst. It also was necessary to have Navarre (combined with some tradechaining) go all around the map and give Ogma the Killing Edge, so I could rig with the standard Ogma Crit + Devil!Barst strat against the boss. Turns 10/42

[spoiler=C4-6]Draug procced 2 Spd levels in the first 3 chapters, so I could have him double Fighters as a Mercenary. Jagen went Dracoknight and could pull the Hunter from the fighter squad since weakening him might help, Iron Bow didn't OHKO and he would have interrupted the 2 tile chokepoint. Castor and Abel chipped the Thief, Cain killed. The fighters were taken on by Devil!Barst and Iron!Draug on Turn 1, I don't remember exactly, but I involved Iron!Darros to chip the Fighter that attacked Draug and fed the kill to Jagen for some reason, and finished off the Fighter to Barst's side with a steel axe hit. Ogma weakened the Hunter further iirc and Jagen killed with Javelin. Someone took the Devil Axe from Barst (obv equipped it) and held the dual chokepoint with Ogma. Also used a savepoint to make things less risky. Shiida also went over to the west and picked off 2 of the Cavs with doubling Win Spear + Vulnerary. Cai, btw, was screwed in speed but high Strength. Abel still had 6 Str but 10 Spd. I took the other Cavs with my other units and had to warp someone that can kill the Thief after some chipdamage because he would reach the village easily. Steel!Marth could do since he appreciates Thief bonus. There was an ownage strat against the Archers by pulling them 1 tile below the Knight and then chipping them away from melee range. Meanwhile, I could pull the Horsemen too with some speedy units (Barst is bulky enough too even though he's doubled). I just used that strat and had Ogma kill the Archers and Shiida killed the Horsemen because that seemed to be the fastest way with that strat. Merric could iirc Excalibur ORKO the Knight, while Marth took the 2nd village and the boss went to Merric + Shiida. Turns 20/62 1 warp

C5 Paladin!Jagen can head to the bridge to distract the archers and steel!cav from the wolfguard. Draug was a Fighter with 12 AS and a 13 Mt Iron forge that can ORKO an Archer. RHS cavaliers went to ep1 Shiida, ep1 Marth -> pp2 Shiida and mended Marth + Merric + Ogma iirc while Barst was in range of the pegasi and pulled the Wendell group. Merric was placed so that he can talk to Wendell next turn and had a heal staff in his inventory to give it and Excaliblick to Wendell. The archers were choked on the bridge by making one attack Jagen and the other one Cain who is behind Jagen. Jagen retreated so Draug can ORKO an Archer. Abel went directly next to the next Archer and attacked. Barst had already done good damage to the Pegasus Knight with Devil, so Steel!Marth (bought some steels on C4) could finish him iirc. Steel!Barst and Killing edge!Ogma (no steel due to weight) took the eastern Archer. Wendell and Marth fullmoved west. I had a vulnerary on the left side so I could stall with Abel to hold the chokepoint a bit longer (Draug went out of the Archer range since standing there wasn't needed). To distract the Javelin!Cav, I had Hardin, Wolf, Roshea and Sedgar (unequipped) and Vyland in case of a 9 spd rolling Cav stand so that they can go back to the fortress, while aggroing the cav through a peak tile. To break through my bridge chokepoint, I could have Wendell finish off the Archer that was 1L to Abel and Draug finished the Archer that could attack Abel. Wendell also was the only bosskiller that can ORKO for my current party that isn't OHKOed on counter-attack (like Shiida is, while Barst has no Hammer access yet). Going near the boss range obligatorily aggroed the Knights and pegasi, so Wendell ORKOed the Knight closer to him with Excalibur next EP (worked without pulling the Javelin!PK iirc) while Shiida pulled the PK (funfact: he wouldn't have either OHKOed or doubled my 9 Spd Lena) and Barst + Ogma picked him off. Shiida was healed and took the next generic AK. Wendell and Marth then prepared to charge the boss, whereas Marth has to stand in the Javelin!Cav's range (though even base Marth will be fine). Next turn, Excalibur!Wendell ORKOes the boss and Marth seizes. Turns 8/70

C6Shiida pulls a Knight on Turn 1 to ORKO. Lena mends on Turn 2, while Wendell barriers General!Wolf, who can then tank a Knight, an Archer and the Mage (I could have stolen General Horace's +1 Silver!Hardin idea for the Mage OHKO or his strat (quickest warpless one for this map), but that would've been insanely dick) The mage went for Abel, who ORKOes with a Base str (screwage op) javelin the same ep. Draug came in handy once again by ORKOing another Archer. The archer weakened by Wolf could be taken by Ogma. I don't know exactly, but Hardin, Barst, Shiida, Jagen and Wendell probably did the rest against the Archers, while either Wolf or Barst prevented the Cavs from wrecking the other part of my army. Wolf was mended by Lena to ensure survival against the Silver!Cav. Sedgar is deployed as a Horseman filler since Wolf does the General work already. He only contributed by chipping a Thief for Abel. The 2 Archer + 1 AK squad was pulled with Wolf + Hardin. Rickard was recruited in the meantime and got both chests that were left (Physic, Bullion). I wolf-pulled the boss area too and killed the boss with Excalibur double and win spear. Turns 9/79

[spoiler=C7]C7Fed Shiida a Seraph Robe. Julian opens the door, Ogma and Badass!DK!Wendell dealt damage to the Archers, Hardin and General!Wolf killed with Javelins. Shiida and Jagen could prevent the Mercenaries from attacking Ogma for more than one round of combat. Merric went down the left hand side to distract the Dracoknight on Turn 2 and blick some pegasus sisters. Cain went there too to distract a Cav from Shiida on turn 4 and use a save point. Marth also had to prepare to reach the village on Turn 4 since he couldn't tank any of the fliers.

wdw

132

e45

w = wall

d = former door

1 wendell

2 hardin

3 shiida

4 wolf

5 draug

e = empty

None of them can be hit more than twice. Shiidas Turn 1 position was 1, Ogmas Turn 1 position was 3. 1U and 1R from Ogma, Abel and hardin chipped, Draug finished off. Shiida javelin'd the e Merc, Wendell steel lance'd and Wolf steel lance'd for the kill. Wendell was physic'd by Lena. Draco obv was excaliblicked, Pegasi could easily be finished off after Draug's Iron forge and Wolf's Steel. Marth and Lena went fullmove towards the village. On turn 4, Shiida entered the reinforcement range and I made sure that she can't be hit by the Steel Lance!Cav and is physic'd by Lena. Marth visited, Cain goes so that the Steel!Cav can engage him without landing on the savepoint. Turn 5 Cain saves and Shiida is rigged a 19% Win spear crit on the boss, Marth is warped and seizes. Turns 5/84 1 warp, 5/7

Edited November 17, 2014 by Gradivus.

[Gradivus.]

[spoiler=C8 & 9]C8Wolf can reach a pseudo chokepoint to make only 2 Cavs hit him (them being sword!cavs is pretty convenient since it's just a 6rko against 32/16 General!Wolf). Afterwards, I can clean them up with Ridersbane / Wing Spear and shit, also excalibur helped a bit. The roger squad could be cleaned up with Hammer!Barst, Shiida recruitment and some random dudes to team up against Archers. Afterwards, the boss was taken on by Shiida + Merric. I also tried to shave out some exp by having Ogma pull the western squad, turned out to be only 1 kill and a bit of javelin spam since I haven't forged the ridersbane yet (could have screwed up my damage against c10 cavs since i didn't know their bulk) Marth seizing quickly also was prepared by always fullmoving (which is probably the reason he's underwhelming on most FE:SD efficiency runs). Turns 7/91

C9 GeneralHorace had seemingly a harder time LTC'ing this chapter (and I could Warp), though I didn't because I could have Pirates!Barst Draug clean up the incoming Hand axe ones (Shiida ep javelin chip + Draug iron axe forge double and Barst Hand axe + devil axe). Julian could easily open the first door on Turn 1 and the second one on Turn 2. Hardin and Cain were Myrmidons for this chapter since it allows doubling Pirates, which is probably better than a Javelin against Axe users (they had high str and could use steel sword easily). Abel could cleanly ORKO the Mage on EP, pulling some pirates and hunters which I could unproblematically take on due to 3 quick sword users, 2 excalibur users (which were used for the Devil!Pirate though on that turn) and shiida with obvious doubling. Julian could take the treasures while Jagen flew over and protected the village with his a lances rank. Lena and Marth went the same way, Jagen could vulnerary the damage from the pirate and when the Hunter came, Jeorge could already choke him on the bridge since the thief and the pirate were away and silverbow was a clean 2hko. Jagen could secure the wyrmslayer while Ogma could go to a point that would prevent the hunters enter the boss area, also distracted some hand axe!Pirates from there. The boss could be killed with consecutive Excalibur hits tradechained between Wendell and Merric (4rko without getting counterattacked) Marth was warped for efficiency and to skip Pirate reinforcements. Turns 9/100 1 warp, 4/7

Edited November 17, 2014 by Gradivus.

[General Horace]

awww bummer I literally just took down the videos for the run you see to be referencing while tidying up my channel this morning - it's unfourtunate that I didn't check SF first otherwise I would have left it up.

Feel free to use similar strats to what I did, I'm not gonna care! A good majority of them i've had help with regardless.

Also, maybe try spacing out your logs a bit more, makes them easier to read.

[Gradivus.]

Yeah, that was kind of meh. I watched your C5 6 7 and 8 strats right before having breakfast, I wanted to watch the C9 one too afterwards but it was away lol. (I don't really care though since I watched the entire playthrough anyways, well, until C18!) Anyways, here C10 which shows that heroes can be better at choking than Generals! Also forgot mentioning that I bought 2 Silver Lances and a Win Spear on Chapter 8 and regret having not bought Vulneraries because they would turn out to be pretty damn handy and I needed both staffbots for the entrance chokepoint.

[spoiler=C10]Chapter 10 I forged a +11 Mt Ridersbane that allowed Abel (7 Str, C Lances) to OHKO Cavaliers here. Made Cain and Hardin Cavs again since Myrm!Cain doesn't double anything on this map and spamming Silver Lance with Hardin is way better if the sword doesn't get any WTA. Hardin, Abel, Jagen and Shiida teamed up to OHKO Cavs (Shiida used Forged Bane too because no counterattack). Wendell's starting position was specified to excalibur ORKO an AK on Turn 2 and another one on Turn 3 without aggroing the Sniper.

What I did afterwards is having everyone rush into the fortress, and once the units inside are capable of reaching and killing the bow squad, I pulled with Ogma from a save position (read: only 1 bowman could hit), Levin Sword equipped for slight extra damage. Hero!Wolf proved himself better at choking the entrance because he takes significantly less damage as a Hero with an Iron Axe since he won't get doubled and the Speed growth was more consistent (the damage difference was enough so that I'd need to use 2 staves a turn every 5th turn only). I brought the entire party to the upper entrance, also Jeorge had to pick off a Javelin!PK because he would have interrupted Wolf otherwise. In the same turn when Marth recruited Maria, Silver!Ogma opened the door and hit the Hero, who was cleaned up by Excalibur!Merric + Silver!Jeorge and another Silver!Ogma hit. Marth had Minerva selfrecruited easily afterwards. I could totally ignore the reinforcements due to what a godlike General a Hero!Wolf can be. I had to unequip the Iron Axe though, since he would otherwise have been stomped by Horseman + DK combos.

The boss area could be taken on by Hammer!Minerva ORKOing the Knight and Shiida + Merric taking the boss. Turns 19/119

Edited November 17, 2014 by Gradivus.

[Gradivus.]

[spoiler=C11]Chapter 11

I figured out that Minerva is, despite how her bases might look, a pretty good midgame unit horaces run made me contemplate using her and she plainly is a better Jagen (similar to how Sirius is compared to Arran on FE12) that gains advantage against many common enemies:

- Lances and Swords can easily be taken away the weapon rank bonus (15 total def against those), faces no doubling from mercs

- insta Poleaxe, Ridersbane after some work on lances

- I won't face any axe enemies ever after C9

- Bow users can mostly be outranged

- Mages OHKO

- Knights Hammer ORKO

- HandAxeBestAxe

So, I decided to field Minerva and screw Jagen. She flies to the Mercs guarding the village; she takes 10 damage that can obviously be vulnerary'd. Prepromotes are just so good in this game. Jeorge and Merric could pull the Pegasi and OHKO on EP 2. My cavaliers were easily out of the Turn 2 Pegasi range. The other units had to hide out on forest tiles (except those who can tank, like Barst). Not much to say about how I cleaned up the village area. The upper hand non-aggroed Merc was pulled by Abel and could easily be killed by Javelin!Abel and Silver!Hardin next turn. I considered benching Cain and did it after that chapter since the Sword rank had no real edge over Abel's lance one since Cain wasn't even C hoho no C no killing edge... got it?

Once the village area was cleaned up (Shiida went to Minerva and helped her by Javelin lolstorming the mercs), I had Marth visit the village and Linde bought Vulneraries. I trekked my army to the top of the map and charged the Thunderbolt!Ballista. Hero!Wolf could pull the Killerbow!Sniper (Cain decided to have an actual purpose on this map and used a savepoint to rig a non-crit on Wolf) Sniper could be killed with Silver!Shiida and Minerva after the EP Hand axe. I somehow pulled the horseman earlier on:

I went into his pseudo-range with Cain (the only field that he could attack from was blocked by the Ballista). I thought he would keep moving and I'd be able to lure him to my Ridersbanes without taking any damage, but he stayed where he was. So I had to barrier Ogma and use him to pull the Horseman. I was really disappointed by this clear as the boss area is tricky and took quite some turns to take on. Turns 20/139 meeeh

A way more efficient strat that revolves around halfskipping would have been very possible by promoting Shiida, forging Jagen a Silver that can critblick Khozen (with a reasonable Critrate though) and having Shiida recruit Jake and subsequently Javelin chip the Gate Cavalier. Minerva finishes him with Hauteclere, Marth is warped after visiting the village and seizes. I might replay H5 anyways so I'll try that strat then. It would've shoven out like 13 turns if I calced right (Wendell can provide 6 Mov Warp so reaching Marth quickly is no big issue)

Is it easier to read with this format?

Edited November 17, 2014 by Gradivus.

[General Horace]

yeah, thats a lot better!

[Gradivus.]

[spoiler=C12]Chapter 12

Minerva and Wendell + Ogma teamed up against the Knights, while this was the prison lineup:

w1234w

weee5w

wwwww

w Wall

e Empty

1 Boah

2 Macellan

3 Tomas

4 Dolph

5 Midia

Only Boah could be hit by the Mage, while the upper archer attacks first so Midia won't get screwed up on turn one. (I wanted to feed Wolf another Thief kill before warping him for the Mage kill) Wolf is going to ORKO the Mage with an Iron Axe after warping with Lena. Note: He won't get any actual sword rank since I find Axes way better on Heroes. #Poleaxe #HandAxe #Hammer

Minerva took the Knight near Wolf iirc. The prisoners move into a safe position.

I could kill the two incoming Mages easily with Shiida and Minerva. I already opened the treasury so Heimler's group and the reinforcements aggroed. I could easily OHKO with POLELANCE!Shiida Hardin by trading, while Abel needed a Minerva Javelin chip to kill (yea the screwage begins already). POLELANCE is my Ridersbane forge in case you didn't presume yet. Marth could get the loot, while Draug pulled the Sniper through-wall so Marth can safely open the door and Wolf could grind Axe rank and exp by holing up the Sniper and attacking all the time. Speaking of Draug, he's cool but str screwed and I benched him next chapter (maybe I used him to distract Ballistae). I could save POLELANCE uses by having Shiida kill the reinforcement horsemen with Wing Spear and tradechaining the POLELANCE between Hardin and Abel. I was pretty damn stupid and didn't instantly have Wolf hold the treasury as a choke while Shiida kills the boss and Masterkey!Minerva takes the boots, which could have been like, 12 turns shorter. Anyways, Turns 19/158

Edited November 18, 2014 by Gradivus.

[Gradivus.]

[spoiler=C13]I kind of used to dislike this chapter, but with the right strat it's fine. I'm pretty sure that my strat for the lower side was a standard one of having Jeorge and Minerva spam their regalia against two of the Ballistae on Turn 2 and having Jake pick off the Ballista chipped by Minerva. As for the other groups, Abel ensured that the middle moving ballista stays where it was by being 10 range from it (lolAccuracy) and Hardin did the same for the upper-hand moving ballista, which could be ORKOed next turn with a 17 Mt Silver Lance forge called SIRIUUUUS.

Paladin!Shiida stopped the Thieves iirc, while Marth could hope for dodges while going to the village. Beck picked off like 3 Ballistae in this chapter since the upper and lower areas could easily get cleaned up by the respective group / Hardin. The middle area kind of appreciated the Beck support since recruiting Astram would've been a pain otherwise. The boss area was tricky but I could trekk Hardin through the middle way and have him kill the Thunderbolt!Ballista while being only exposed to Arrowspate and Stonedodgehoist.

Obviously, I used the 2nd savepoint for the dodges on Hardin. I spammed my Physic's with Lena and Wendell to ensure his further survival while SIRIUUUS'ing the Arrowspate (I had to take the Healer out anyways since I couldn't afford to bring Minerva there yet due to this Arrowspate, while Marth couldn't afford to go to seizing range either.) Hardin + Minerva could take out the boss together with their strong doubling weapons with a 2RKO (iirc 10*2 from Minerva with a strength proc and 12*2 from SIRIUUUS!Hardin). Turns 16/174

I was disappointed by myself once again. I'm pretty sure that Midia can give Astram a Levin Sword to bring the boss down to 22, and then Minerva can abuse a critforged Silver Axe (or Shiida the Jagen critthing from C11), which would make for a 4 turn with halfskip if Bishops can cross ledges, otherwise a 5 turn probably.

Edited November 19, 2014 by Gradivus.

[Gradivus.]

Did I mention that I ran out of Physic forever on C13 due to how few Physic staves the game has? Anyways, I didn't need them later on.

[spoiler=C14]Chapter 14

I think I released the bridge with Julian, picked off the Ballista with Thunderbolt + something and somehow killed the Knights with Minerva, Wendell, Pirate!Barst and Shiida iirc. I didn't go for the village since I probably will never find use for Thoron (Wendell mainly acts as a Staffbot, I have Bolganone, Excalibur and Elfire anyways and Lena is unlikely to reach C Tomes (while 13 Mag Elfire was enough for chip damage as a Sage, in which class she still had A staves)).

I doubt that much detail about how I routed the Cavaliers is necessary; Boss area could easily be taken by Shiida and Minerva (Wendell could chip a bit as he gave Excalibur to Merric). Merric was rigged an Excalibur Crit against the Sniper and Julian could take the loot. Catria and Palla selfrecruited and blocked the spawning range for reinforcements. I bought some Ridersbanes because it's FE11. I think some Pure Waters too. Turns 10/184

I don't know how I think about this clear. Warping once the pegasus sisters were recruited would probably have saved 2 or 3 turns and since I didn't plan to fullskip too much, I'd probably have been fine using Warp for a slight TC change.

[Gradivus.]

[spoiler=C15]Chapter 15

The classic 'meh, so many mages' chapter. I could go pretty easy though. Minerva ORKOpulled the Bolganone!Bishop with a forged Hand Axe called Nightmage. (I don't know why I didn't forge a Javelin) Catria got some Mage kills to level up, Palla flew over to the treasures with a Master Key. I could disprioritize her from one of the Dracoes with Excalibur!Merric, while the other one couldn't reach either her or Merric's position and went to the direction where Merric was (probably defense-manipulated AI).

Lena got promoted to Bishop mid-chapter as she can get over 20 Res as a Bishop with Pure Water, to tink Gharnef. Two Mages aggroed due to the Bishop kill and could be OHKOed or ORKOed respectively by Minerva and Shiida. Catria chipped away the Thief with Javelin. Once Palla could get the Energy drop, Shiida ORKOed the Gate Bishop and Marth was warped there and seized. Turns 5/189 1 Warp, 7+3/14

I think swapping Palla's and Minerva's roles could have saved 1 or maaaybe 2 Turns here (Palla can probably OHKO Mages with SIRIUUUS).

Edited November 19, 2014 by Gradivus.

[Gradivus.]

[spoiler=C16]Chapter 16

Pretty simple chapter. Wolf and Minerva are bulky enough to tank 2 DK hits, so I could have them go into this formation:

1/

2/

1 Wolf

2 Minerva

/ Nothing (aka map outline)

Marth and Palla with Silver Card went towards the village, Beck and Jake could take out the Curate and Shiida could double Heroes (Kills went to Shiida and Catria, latter of which needed Ballista chip damage). Julian opened the door to get Shiida to the Silver!Hero's melee range and use a Pure Water to be more consistent against Levin Sword. Once Marth was on the way back from Arran, I could unbodyblock Xane so he can selfrecruit.

Palla bought a Wing Spear and a Silver Lance and used a save point to ensure non-crits from the boss. Minerva could chip him with Hammer, then Shiida finished with a Wing Spear double (still too lazy to forge Wing Spear, though I don't view it as a necessity anyways). Marth was warped and seized. Turns 9/198 1 Warp 7+2/14

[Gradivus.]

Quad update ftw.

[spoiler=C17]Chapter 17

I think this map shows pretty well how much precision LTC'ing can require on some maps (way less so on FE12 with Feena). Winwendell barriered Julian on Turn 1. Julian stays out of the Swarm range, so do the other units. Xane imitates Beck, while Beck and Jake take out the Mage on the right-hand side. On Turn 2, Wolf took out the Fortify droppable!Bishop, Hardin took the Fortify staff and ORKOed the VIP Card!Bishop, whose droppable went to the convoy. Wendell barriered Minerva, Julian opened the door, Minerva killed the upper Knight, while Marth took the VIP Card and Silver Card and gave them to Minerva, and uses a Pure Water. Marth can luckily tank a hit from a Forged Javelin, while the 7 Res boost disprioritizes him. Catria went so that she can attack the boss on Turn 3 while not being in range of the 2nd Knight. Beck, Jake and Xane took out the Warp!Thief. Lena took Fortify from Hardin and uses it.

Turn 3 Shiida is warped to the tile above the boss (I counted that she can't reach it in two DK movements when she starts in front of the door) and the savepoint is used. Shiida had to hit 2 Dragonpikes, then Catria finished off with another Dragonpike. Beck, Jake and if necessary Xane teamed up against the Thief that takes Devil Sword. Minerva went shopping and took some Wyrmslayers and Dragonpikes, 2 Poleaxes and a Killer Axe. Turns 3/201 1 Warp, 7+1/14

I don't think there is much room to improve the TC outside of Fullskip (which I find pointless, esp on Midgame); 2 Turns warpless might technically be possible though if Marth avoids getting doubled by the Sniper (mine couldn't), didn't count the tiles.

Edited November 19, 2014 by Gradivus.

[Gradivus.]

[spoiler=C18]Chapter 18

Pretty straightforward imo. Xane became Shiida because having my best unit twice is... you can guess? He and Shiida blocked the bridge and could easily help my Ridersbane users to kill the Cavs by doubling them with Javelin. Proceeded to pull the nonmoving enemies group by group, while Xane had to pull the lower 5 man group from sea (yeah, he tanks Silver Bow). Well, the entire map can be ridersbane raped.

I actually didn't defeat the boss enough to stop all reinforcements, while I pulled the two Cavs right to the boss in the same turn. Hardin + Abel + Minerva + Catria could easily use the POLELANCE against the reinforcements (some kills required chip but I don't remember with whom I chipped, but not like it'd matter) and Shiida / Xane or whoever could kill the Cavs from the right. Turns 10/211

[Gradivus.]

[spoiler=C19]Chapter 19

This chapter kind of reminds me of FE12 C22. Just running up through the middle way killing random enemies, then going either right or left up and removing a dragon from the throne Anyways, killing the Mercs was kind of easy and I promoted Hardin to DK so he and Shiida can take care of the hero. Removed 3 Mercs easily on turn 1 and Bantu's movement tempted me to warp him on Turn 5 or something, but I wanted the treasures anyways. The hero was pulled with Javelin so I don't activate the Fortify (wouldn't have mattered much though since its Turn 1 on a game with frail enemies).

I somehow turned out to have Catria in the range of the Starsphere room mage (woulda OHKOed), but it was through-wall and the thief blocked the attacking spot as stealing the treasure apparently had priority. Anyways, neither killing the Mages nor the Heroes was actually hard. Getting Bantu to the Throne was annoying, but ehh. Julian and Rickard had enough time to take all the treasures and reveal the Masterseal!Sniper (and kill him with Shiida + Hardin). Turns 9/220

I think giving my mounted units Master Keys to clean up the treasure faster (and maybe ignoring some unnecessary items) would have speeded up combined with a Bantu warp.

Edited November 20, 2014 by Gradivus.

[Gradivus.]

[spoiler=C20]Chapter 20

The screwage became clear to me just here. Barst and Wolf had 12 Str and 17 AS as Heroes. Ogma had 32 Atk with Mercurius (not enough to ORKO Ballistae, while AS was 19 and didn't allow him to double Paladins.) Would have used 2 Arms Scrolls for Poleaxe if the game would provide them and in that case wing + drop to salvage him lol. But this actually is kind of crap, like, 2 Arms Scrolls are too much expected? Promoting Merric would probably have been better.

I decided to use a strat that not many people would probably have expected. Barst equips a Silver Axe and has a Master Key for the bridge. Jake could OHKO the ballista to the left with a 18 Mt Thunderbolt called BallistaGrill (mt: planned to OHKO C25 Ballistae name: wtf did i think?) while Hardin took the one in the General area with SIRIUUUS and Starsphere. Wolf hammered the upper General (not quite an ORKO so Catria could be fed a kill as a Dracoknight) and Hauteclere!Minerva + Wing spear!Shiida killed the other one. I gave Barst a Dracoshield as 34 HP / 15 Def with an Axe would be barely enough to tank Ballista + Brave Lance. Turned out unnecessary but came in handy for C21.

I could chokepoint the Sword!Pallies on the bridge with Hardin or Catria, decided for Hardin as Catria appreciates a POLELANCE kill for experience. I could kill the rest with Draco!Abel, Paladin!Shiida and Poleaxe!Wolf. Some kills required Ballista chipping and doing these things would have been more easy if I'd have deployed Xane for 3rd ballista. One Paladin actually went down, but iirc I killed him with Barst + Minerva or something. Minerva's potential decreased from this chapter on due to Braves, but she isn't 2HKOed so it's at least fine deploying her.

The other areas weren't that probable to be made errors in, as it's just blicking 2 ballistae and blocking forts. Sword!Pallies weren't hard to rout either. I could pull the generic General in Camus' area easily (ORKO on EP after Thunderbolt) and kill Camus with a Shiida rigged crit. Hardin wasn't around unfortunately. Killing Camus with the SIRIUUUS lance would have been nice. Shiida could iirc speak to Lorenz the same turn she attacks Camus. Turns 12/232

I think I could have done Halfskip here (which strat involves SIRIUUUSkilling Camus) by having Shiida + Hardin/Catria take on Camus while Jake with Thunderbolt goes up the initially bridge-locked area to flank the Pachyderm!Ballista asap. Would probably have been 5 or 6 Turns.

Edited November 20, 2014 by Gradivus.

[Gradivus.]

[spoiler=C21]Chapter 21

I used a strat similar to Irysa's 4 turn one because screw fullskip. Turn 1 I splitpulled the Generals with Iron Axe Forge!Catria (1 General) and Barst (due to the splitpull it requires way less rigging since he can tank 3 of 4 hits with the Dracoshield). Forged a +3 Hammer to ORKO and named it General. Lorenz pulled the Javelin!DK with Iron Bow equipped (not to trigger Fortify) and can finish off with Parthia and Minerva pulled the Bravelance!DK that was could be killed by Silver!Jeorge and another Minerva hit. I hammerned Merric's Excalibur and brought him in range to blick the instamoving DK after a Ballista chip. (he still was a 7 Mag Mage lol)

If the Pallies went straight down, I could kill with some Poleaxe + Ridersbane comboes. Otherwise it would maybe have been manageable with Gradivus!Shiida (who had 2 less points of Atk than NM Camus lol) and some Pachyderm spam if it's just for one side no fullmove down. Note that Shiida had to be in the Sniper's range to ORKO him next EP, since I have, unlike the original strat, no General that can pull Sniper + 3 Pallies at once and automatically was a turn slower. Once the Sniper was removed, I had Hardin pull two Pallies, while only one of them can reach him on the enemy phase at the same time. The last Pally could be pulled with Shiida. To ensure that Marth can reach the seizing point, I fortified and had Shiida pull a Mage with Gradivus. Then, Marth could finally go to the appropriate tile and seize after Shiida kills the boss. Turns 5/237

I think there was only room for improvement by having a solid general, maybe I could have made Barst a General to pull things more quickly (23 Def 40 HP or something) since Wolf can do Axe!Hero easily anyways.

Edited November 20, 2014 by Gradivus.

[Gradivus.]

8x update! I also bought all statboosters on C21 except Icons and Secret Books.

[spoiler=C22-Final]

Chapter 22I checked the AI of the fliers and blicked those that will instantly move with the highest priority, using Beck, Jake and Jake!Xane with a +7 Arrowspate to oneshot. I could just hurry around the fortress. I also contemplated to kill the Curates first and then 5RKO (gate healing, but I have Starsphere and Hammerne) Michalis with Thunderbolt and go a bit slower, but decided for efficiency. Sword!Pallies, non-Ridersbane!Pegasi and Horsemen are easily stomped by Gradivus!Shiida. Shiida had to retreat once Ridersbanes came (or just attack from range if she doesn't pull too many enemies by doing that). I could slightly limit the range of fliers by having Catria and Hardin stand next to the wall (Minerva is doubled and ORKOed by DK's here, doubled and not ORKOed by Pegasi). Anyways, Jeorge could distract a Javelin!Pegasus since he counterOHKOes from range. The second enemy wave was the toughest one imo as it was most of them at once. I can imagine how much work General!Barst would have done, but didn't realize it in time and probably just thought fuck that D Lances, which was pretty stupid. Nothing with which I couldn't deal though. Michalis could be killed with Shiida and Hardin's Gradivus after Thunderbolt chip. Turns 10/247

I doubt that I could have improved much with that party. Maybe one turn. I could have cheesed it though by forging another Ridersbane over the arrowspate and warping General!Barst with an arms scroll on a fort. Note that preventing Swarm!Bishops is an absolute necessity on this chapter. They're such bitches lol.

Chapter 23

Warpskip, Shiida to bosskill and Marth to seize. Turns 1/248, 2 Warp, 7+1+5/21

I guess I could have Shiida soloed with halfskip to seize to make it less brainless. Basically I had no Starlight and thus no way to prevent reinforcements, so it'd have taken way too long for me if I'd have taken on them, though, as for Warpless, I guess a Lena solo with maybe an Angel Robe would have been possible. Barriered Beck could have distracted the Swarms from Pure Water!Shiida and killed with 2x Pachyderm alongside Jake. Shiida would have been necessary though as she can ORKO Snipers from range with 37 Atk (2 drops).

Chapter 24

Minerva flew over to the Secret Shop, bought all items, Gradivus!Hardin + Dragonpikes!Catria Shiida were rigged to all hit the boss and kill. Warp on Marth. Turns 4/252 1 Warp, 7+1+4/21

I guess I could have made Shiida an SM with a Wyrmslayer forge to 2HKO Manaketes (11 Str as an SM lol), while Hardin gets an Arms Scroll on Bows. Minerva is warped to the shop and convoys another Arms Scroll (Once again: Why so few scrolls throughout the game?) Hardin uses it and is tradeswapped to Parthia and ORKOes the Sniper on EP. Then, Shiida takes the chokepoint and is recovered by Wendell each turn. Lena recovers Hardin and he proceeds to pull Bishops and Snipers through mountains. (he would have needed 25 speed aka 2 wings, but I didn't use any of the buyable ones elsewhere so I'd have been fine)

Endgame

Hardin got two Arms Scrolls and 3 Speedwings as a Sniper, Shiida got 3 Drops and 2 Arms Scrolls as a Swordmaster. Hardin is forged a 50 Crt 13 Mt Killer Bow with my leftover money.

Elice warps Shiida into the boss range, Boah warps Catria, Wendell warps Hardin, Gotoh warps Tiki. Catria and Shiida team up against the Manakete, Hardin crits Medeus, Tiki finishes Medeus. Turns 1/253 4 Warp 6+0+2/21

Guess what happened two years after the war?

Hardin turned on us, Catria somehow lost her stats and Shiida returned as the only statscrewed unit on my party.

Edited November 20, 2014 by Gradivus.

[Gradivus.]

I'm planning an final chapter playthrough with neither Geosphere nor Warp atm.

Left room: Catria killer crit + Abel > Levin!Hero

Shiida Wyrmslayer2x + Hardin Parthia > Fire Dragon

3 man group: Xane -> Beck

2 Ballistae blicking with C20 Thunderbolt forge

Marth group:

w1w

w2w

43e

1 General!Barst

2 Gotoh, trades Swarm to Marth

3 Marth, opens door

4 Merric, takes swarm to chip the Javelin!Pally

Right hand side group:

Jeorge silver + spirit dusted lena elfire > Draco

Wolf Hammer forge > Swarm Bishop & General

Booster distribution: Barst 2 Robe, 1 Shield, 1 Scroll

Shiida 2 Shield, 1 Robe

Lena enough dust for 20 mag

Hardin 2 Wing, 2 Scroll

I'm testing a bit atm and the strat seems to need a lot of optimization as things stand

Also, I was mistaken and Hardin only needs 2 wings as a Sniper for the Medeus benchmark, he had 21 AS as a Draco so I threw the numbers around. And this General + 4 mounted group from above looks so scary as they reach my ballistae by Turn 3 and Barst isn't too probable to choke them in time.

Edited November 21, 2014 by Gradivus.

[Gradivus.]

Wolf gets an Angel robe to survive a General Brave Lance (Elice luck-distracts the bishop if necessary)

Lena gets 1 Dust and a Scroll to kill the Dragonpike!Draco after Jeorge chip with Bolganone

Merric gets two Dusts, Jake gets one dust, for stronger Thunderbolt or Swarm resp, Thunderbolt needs it to 3HKO the General after Swarm, Wendell 1 Dust for Swarm too

Shiida 1 Robe 2 Shield to survive a Paladin!Brave Lance and a Firestone!Manakete with double fortify in between and 3 Drop to kill the Firestone!Manakete alongside Hardin assuming a 10 Def roll

Barst 2 Robe 1 Shield for maximum tankiness, 4 Wing to double the Thoron!Bishop and avoid doubling from Paladins, 1 Scroll for Ridersbane

Hardin obligatory 2 Wing 2 Scroll to tank Medeus and double Snipers/Heroes

Sold almost everything and forged a +3 Pachyderm to kill the Wyrmslayer!Pally together with Merric's Swarm chip.

For my strat to work the 4 mounted braves from above must go to the right hand side first, otherwise Barst won't reach the chokepoint in time. Catria + Arran killing the Hero still relies on a Killer Crit -> Gradivus. Didn't see a point in using Abel when Arran's lance is ranged and neither can tank any hits on that chapter. (Yes, Arran can be efficiently used on the final chapter)

As for enemy stat rolls, the Dragonpike!Draco mustn't roll 5 Res and 14 Def at once, neither is he allowed to roll 58 HP combined with one of aforementioned things and the Manakete in the right-hand side room must roll 10 Def as a Manakete. Wow, together with the Catria crit, that makes for like, a 10% chance to be successful on Turn 1. I guess I'll gamble a bit and be fine with Hardin critting a Killer bow against the Manakete if he rolls 11 Def. The Silversword!Hero must spawn with 12 Def so Hardin can ORKO with Parthia after a Str proc off the Dragon (doesn't matter if Gotoh can afford to Fortify that turn)

Also Nightmage is a Javelin, I thought it was a Hand Axe. I just gave it to Barst.

Edited November 22, 2014 by Gradivus.

[Gradivus.]

http://imgur.com/n9R5MQh

German version, in case you wonder. Anyways, Barst holed up the enemies around their own Paladin, whose weapon broke in the meantime. Screenshotted to prove that I actually did that on H5 (A swords on the pally). 21 Mt 89 Hit Pachyderm!Starsphere!Xane Beck Jake chipped them away. My sages and Marth went to the autoclosing door, while Shiida and Hardin could kill the Mage dragon that guards it. The western group went exactly as I expected and the 12 Def and 10 Def rolls on the Hero and Manakete resp both turned out necessary, so did the Hardin str proc. Elice pulled the Bishop onto the autoclosing door with her low luck and a Pure Water, and Gotoh fortifed in between so she could have picked off the DK with Fire if Jeorge + Lena wouldn't have been enough. Wolf went directly above the Swarm!Bishop to prevent the General from doing anything. Once the door closed, he ORKOed him with my earlier Iron axe forge and the General couldn't pass (so I could reconsider my spare robe onto Shiida). Ballista spam + Hardin brought Medeus down to 3 HP so that Gotoh could kill. And yes, I benched Abel for Arran

As for my newer playthrough, seriously, I struggle to hit all those lance hits (while 5/7 units rely on lances) lol. Would be easier if I screwed the 9 or 10 turn and go slower + abuse fort healing but I rather rig that shit. I'd not even complain about someone abusing savestates on that as it'd be kinda reasonable. What did IS think to give us this chapter without a savepoint? If there was one, I'd try to 5 turn with a Jagen crit against the boss

Edited November 24, 2014 by Gradivus.

[Chloe Neo]

So your talking about your units having low stats, Ive never had that problem apart from shadow dragon.

[Gradivus.]

it didn't even turn out that bad as I had tons of boosters and shadow dragon is actually a game where stats don't matter that much, seeing as nearly every unit is usable even on H5 (aside from some late unpromoted units), unlike in e.g. FE12 where most late units are flatout ORKOed on H3/4 and can't deal any significant damage. I could even make Lorenz do some work and he has, eh you know his bases.

[Irysa]

Skimmed through this earlier today. Surprised to find I was credited for something!

And I'm pretty impressed you could be bothered to do the final chapter the long way without geosphere. I attempted to go back and do it myself (and I had a lot of good units) but it was such a gigantic pain in the rear that I decided it wasn't worth the hassle.

[Chloe Neo]

Fe12 was a great game, plus all of my team nearly maxed all their stats apart from in fe11 where i was unaware of the stay boosting shops until yesterday.

[Gradivus.]

yeah, fe12 is kinda cool

@Irysa Actually my strat wasn't even that hard to pull off (it required Starsphere though), more like, this chokepoint sort of trivialized it once I figured out that, once the door near Marth's group is open, Barst can hold the chokepoint just fine if he goes there alone since Marth Gotoh Wendell and Merric are further away from the eastern reinforcements than Barst. It would have been a massive pain to pull off if having Marth's group to the chokepoint would be necessary as they don't really get any time to get through those high numbers of strong enemies swarming around. You also wouldn't have been able to pull off the Ballista strat (unless you'd have went back to C22 and either bought ammo or kept the spheres) as your ballistae were sort of limited without starsphere. Though your Sedgar had B bows so you could probably have spammed most of your remaining bows with him. You should go back and try it yet again

Another problem was the hit rates, siriusly. Thunderbolt has like 70 hit and I had to connect five hits before getting to a savepoint. Catria's crit was 26%, Lena's Bolganone was a 70, I'm kind of glad that Shiida Wyrmslayer double + Gradivus!Arran + Silver!Catria was enough to pick off the Paladin so I didn't have to chuck in another shaky 70 with Ridersbane, the Swarms from my sages were 70s too, four of which hits were necessary. My Pachyderm forge fortunately could hit 89 base hit so that wasn't all that shaky at the very least. Hero and Manakete rolls were 50/50s I guess? Having calculated that, that's technically a 1/550 chance and actually had to rig a lot too. I spent 2 days on rigging that (yeah, I probably lack better hobbies). That's comparatively low time tbh.

Edited November 30, 2014 by Gradivus.