Lunatic+: coming up with a reliable clear for Ch. 2 - *COMPLETED*

[Interceptor]

CLICK HERE FOR THE FINAL COMPLETED WALKTHROUGH

----------

This is a mini project thread for something I've been thinking about for a little bit: finding a reliable clear for Chapter 2.

Those who have tried Lunatic+ before know that "Shepherds" is one of the most annoying chapters in the game. You have no time to train your army properly beforehand, you get rushed by nine guys, there's nowhere to hide, nowhere to turtle, you can't adjust your deployment, there are a bunch of weak units to protect, and a high Luna+ density will wreck your face.

The classic countermeasure is to over-level a +DEF Avatar, but even that can be frustrating because of the effect of skill combos (too much Hawkeye/Luna+? Restart). Thus, the search for a Better Way. I've made some headway on a Ch. 2 start that's pretty consistent, and gets a lot done, so I'm throwing what I have out there. First, the layout, and unit/enemy stats, so that everyone can follow along:

           HP STR MAG SKL SPD LCK DEF RES   ATK HIT AVO
Soldier    32 11  0   11  11  9   4   1     22  106 21
Barbarian  33 14  0   7   10  6   3   1     26  93  18
Mercenary  30 12  0   15  13  8   3   1     23  116 23

*Chrom     20 7   1   8   8   5   7   1     12  104 14
*Lissa     17 1   5   4   4   8   3   4     --  --  14
Frederick  28 13  2   12  10  6   14  3     27  101 18
Sully      20 7   1   8   8   6   7   2     10  105 15
Virion     19 6   0   11  5   7   6   1     12  105 11
Stahl      22 8   0   7   6   5   8   1     11  113 11
Vaike      29 9   0   8   6   4   5   0     16   89 11
**Miriel   18 0   8   5   7   6   3   4     10  100 13

* Lissa won't be base level, Chrom might not be. Using Rapier here.
** Miriel shows up on Turn 2.

Also, in order for this to work, Robin needs the following minimum things:

• C-rank support with Chrom (requires some forethought, but not hard)
• 13 Atk with Thunder (either 9 MAG and C Tomes, or 10 MAG)
• 11 SPD (this is a +SPD Robin; otherwise you'd need 5 SPD procs, which is somewhat unreasonable)

Got all that? So here's what I've got so far, with chances of success for each event, during the first Turn:

• Pair Virion with Robin, move south of left Merc, Switch, blast with Virion. (~96%)
• Move Stahl to left Barbarian, attack from the right. Stahl won't die here even if the Barbarian has Luna+ and Hawkeye. (~92%)
• Move Chrom south of Stahl, take Robin, Switch, blast the Barbarian. This is the chanciest move, since you need to land both hits and either get a DS or a crit. But with a ~14% crit rate and ~44% DS rate, it's not as rare as you'd think. It's about 50/50 for double-hit + a DS, or a ~23% chance for an outright OHKO on a crit. (~60%)
• Pair Vaike with Sully, move Sully her full MV all the way west and one square north.
• Take Frederick and finish off the Mercenary from the left. Stahl nearby for +10 HIT basically guarantees this kill, even if he spawns with Patience. (~99.98%)
• Move Lissa as close to Sully/Vaike as you can get her.

At this point, two enemies have been killed, and two of your units are exposed. Sully + Vaike will attract the left-most Soldier (who cannot kill Sully even if he has Luna+), Frederick will attract the one from the Fort (who likewise cannot kill him; even if both the Merc AND Soldier have Luna+ and hit, he *barely* survives). Sully counters for 10 damage at 94% HIT, Frederick for 23 dmg at 100% HIT (with a chance for a non-fatal whack from Stahl). Turn 1 will be successful more than half the time.

Next Player Phase:

• Pair Miriel (yay!) onto Lissa, move them south of Sully, Switch, trade the Iron Axe to Vaike, and blast the Soldier with Fire. (98.5%)
• Move the Robin/Chrom Pair to the far west of the wounded Soldier above them, blast with Thunder (basically 100% kill, especially if you can double).
• Switch Vaike to the front of his Pair, hold your breath, kill the Soldier. (~95%)
• If Miriel missed, throw Virion on Stahl and have him finish. If Vaike misses, Frederick has to intervene.
• ???

That's the point at which things sort of break down, tactically. Four enemies are dead, five fresh ones are nearby. Robin/Chrom is in range of two Barbarians; without +DEF, most likely she cannot handle both. So someone needs to trade a Sword in, and un-equip Chrom so that a DS doesn't clear space. Frederick is beat to heck, but with an Elixir heal there's a spot he can stand on a Mountain and whack both the Merc and one of the Barbs (maybe) with his Silver Lance. Once the numbers are thinned out, you can use the Mountains to do a little Benny Hill action to kite them in a circle and pick the rest of them off.

That leaves the six guys on the other side of the bridge plus the boss, but that's a cinch by comparison. You have all the time in the world to set up, plus Forts to abuse.

So that's as far as I've gotten. Note that other than the rigged DS on Turn 1, the success chances are all high, and the skills on the first four enemies (and maybe the first seven) are basically irrelevant. This does leave open the question of Chapter 3 (which is a pain in the ass if you cannot tank the LHS, and a +SPD Robin will have trouble there), and Ch. 1 is a little bit more annoying (you have to kite more), but maybe it's a decent trade-off.

I'll update with more screens when I have the time, but anyone with thoughts/criticisms/ideas can feel free to weigh in.

Edited June 23, 2014 by Interceptor

[VincentASM]

This sounds really cool, especially with the (mostly) high odds.

Would have saved me a lot of heartache dealing with 5+ deaths in one chapter, but that's not a complaint : P

[Florete]

Looks legit. Maybe now I'll finally be able to get past this crap.

[Dragonslayer9x]

This seems a heck of a lot more reliable then trying to get the avatar to solo every thing (requires good level ups, good spread of enemy lunatic+ skills and on top of that a little luck for attacks/dodges/dual guards). I just started another lunatic+ save and restarted it 3 times as a +spd, -lck avatar trying to get a decent stat spread by this chapter. Can you go back in time by like say 4 days and post this? it would really help me not tear my hair out :P

I find chapter 3 a lot easier (take Lissa, Fred, Avatar and Chrom only so that you only have 6 characters). All it requires is wiping out the left side of the map quickly and then funneling your characters into the stairs. Pair kellem and fred in front and unequip his weapon, with lissa and avatar behind them. Avatar can spam fireballs behind fred at anything that has counter while fred pops potions (maybe switch to lissa for a heal now and then or if the avatar starts taking too much damage from arrows you can always transfer her behind the avatar for a turn and heal him). Once all the counter is gone you can transfer the avatar to fred and have him take the lead and finish off everything else with his sword while lissa keeps him topped off. Next open the left side door lure out the knight and throw it to the ground with spells. After that you have two options. You can open the other door kill the other knight and then aggro the enemies and kite them around the map while lissa heals the avatar and run circuits around the map or you can leave that door closed and try and castle up in the other stairs after aggroing the enemies. The second strategy carries risks because of the hammer and will require the avatar to tank the front while fred or kellem throws jav's from behind. Once that guy is down though it gets much easier.

[Czar_Yoshi]

Ooh, nice.

So while we're talking about the Lunatic+ earlygame, I found a new strat for the Prologue that's probably useless if you're just trying to clear Lunatic+ but potentially helpful for getting any asset/flaw through the earlygame: a way to make Chrom do the Water Trick. He doesn't have Veteran, but he could potentially turn out more powerful than Frederick with a Fred support and a few levels, making him a better alternative to Frederick Emblem. This strat is likely how you'd get him started. I did this a few days ago so I can't promise my write-up is perfect (though if anyone's really curious, I'll go start a new file and do it again), but the essential strategy after the first wave is dead (Chrom got all but the Myrms) is pretty much this:

Chrom has Fred supporting, and Avatar has Lissa supporting. I had them enter the water on the left (right probably works too). Avatar equips Thunder, Fred equips nothing, the Mage can't have Vantage+. Avatar enters the water first and stands in range of the Mage to lure it, while Chrom stands directly behind Avatar to lure the rest of the enemies into going south. The Mage attacks, Avatar counter-attacks. Next turn, Avatar moves left, takes a Vulnerary, and Chrom moves up (into the Mage's range). EP, the Mage attacks Chrom. Next turn, Avatar moves up and attacks the Mage diagonally (not necessary in Avatar is +Mag), and then Chrom moves up one and attacks with Falchion/Rapier for the kill. During EP, enemies will move close, but can't quite reach you.

Next PP, move both Avatar and Chrom down, out of range. Chrom takes a vulnerary (two if he can't survive a round of combat with one enemy). Next turn, Chrom moves up into enemy range (still on the water) with a weapon equipped. Avatar moves to stand behind Chrom. EP, enemies attack and Chrom gets hit once and hits back once (but shouldn't KO. Equip Falchion if Rapier's crit is worrysome, or even the Bronze Sword).

PP, Avatar moves down and drops Lissa on the shore. Chrom moves down. EP, enemies come closer but aren't in range yet.

PP, Avatar moves left, Chrom moves down, and Lissa heals Chrom. EP, enemies come closer and are now in range.

PP, Lissa pairs up with Avatar and Avatar moves up. Chrom moves left (under Avatar). EP, Chrom fights 1-2 enemies, but no more.

The cycle of go to the other side -> drop Lissa -> heal Chrom -> fight 1 battle repeats until all the enemies except the boss are dead. Chrom should be ~Lv.4.5 by the end.

[Interceptor]

This sounds really cool, especially with the (mostly) high odds.

Would have saved me a lot of heartache dealing with 5+ deaths in one chapter, but that's not a complaint : P

It's annoying to have to rig a DS/crit, but at least you pretty much know by the third move whether or not you have to restart. And fortunately no particular attempt will ever take very long, because you aren't wasting time checking enemy skills (since they don't matter).

Looks legit. Maybe now I'll finally be able to get past this crap.

I'm positive that you can; the only trick is getting there in the first place. Prologue doesn't change, but I'm still trying to iron out a +SPD Robin clear for Ch. 1. I want to take advantage of the ability to actually double the Fighters w/Chrom, while compensating for the fact that you can't actually just sit on a Fort with Frederick and Sword everything to death with massive DEF.

Thus far it's proving somewhat annoying.

This seems a heck of a lot more reliable then trying to get the avatar to solo every thing (requires good level ups, good spread of enemy lunatic+ skills and on top of that a little luck for attacks/dodges/dual guards). I just started another lunatic+ save and restarted it 3 times as a +spd, -lck avatar trying to get a decent stat spread by this chapter. Can you go back in time by like say 4 days and post this? it would really help me not tear my hair out :P

Yeah, tell me about it; I could have used this about a year ago, myself. Some people, if they had a time machine, would go back in time to kill Hitler. Me, I'd make a pit-stop in 2013 with a printout of this thread.

I find chapter 3 a lot easier (take Lissa, Fred, Avatar and Chrom only so that you only have 6 characters). All it requires is wiping out the left side of the map quickly and then funneling your characters into the stairs. [...]

This is a good strategy, although I prefer to train Miriel on this map; she can gain 5-6 levels easily if you can protect her from any Luna+ archers. And if you're using more than the bare minimum deployment, you run out of space in the corridor. So once I get a decent clear of Ch. 2, and play Ch. 3 for funsies, I think I may open the door, kill the Knight, and then just spread out un-Paired on the top level so that none of the Pass enemies have any valid landing tiles to get through.

It's a little something that I like to call the "clogged toilet maneuver".

So while we're talking about the Lunatic+ earlygame, I found a new strat for the Prologue that's probably useless if you're just trying to clear Lunatic+ but potentially helpful for getting any asset/flaw through the earlygame: a way to make Chrom do the Water Trick. [...] The cycle of go to the other side -> drop Lissa -> heal Chrom -> fight 1 battle repeats until all the enemies except the boss are dead. Chrom should be ~Lv.4.5 by the end.

This is cool even despite not being all that useful for Lunatic+. Although I have to say it's pretty sad that Chrom only gets ~3.5 levels out of the deal. Veteran is just stupid.

[Interceptor]

Update: I figured out a set of steps to make Turn 2 highly consistent as well.

Frederick will always face one Barbarian and one Mercenary if you put him on a Mountain, but he will die (barely) if they both get Luna+. So I made it death-proof by sticking Virion on him (+2 DEF), which has the added benefit of increasing his hit rate, and even giving a ORKO chance on both of them if Virion gets a Dual Strike (but I unequipped Virion for the sake of Science).

That leaves Robin. If you move her to the left of the soldier, Switch to Chrom, unequip his weapon, and then kill the Solder with Thunder... you can have Stahl move to her west, switch out Thunder for a Bronze Sword, and now she's perfectly safe from the Barbarian (the only enemy that can reach her). With a Sword, she doubles but doesn't ORKO (can't crit with a Sword, and there will be no Dual Strike), has a 100% hit rate, and can't die even to Luna+/Hawkeye (you only need +4 net durability over base stats to survive that, which is super-easy to get over 7-8 level-ups).

After Enemy Phase, three of the five remaining enemies will be badly injured. Two Soldiers are fresh. So far, not a single enemy unit's Lunatic+ skills have been relevant to any movements whatsoever. Looking at the layout, I think that I can guarantee 2-3 kills during Turn 3. Will work on it.

Anyway, I'll post some screenshots later, but here's the updated turn-by-turn:

Second Player Phase:

• Pair Miriel (yay!) onto Lissa, move them south of Sully, Switch, trade the Iron Axe to Vaike, and blast the Soldier with Fire. (98.5%)
• Switch Vaike to the front of his Pair, hold your breath, kill the Soldier. (~95%)
• Move the Robin/Chrom Pair to the far west of the wounded Soldier above them, Switch, unequip Chrom's weapon, Switch, blast with Thunder. (near-100% if doubling)
• If Miriel missed, throw Virion on Stahl and have him finish. If Vaike misses, Frederick has to intervene.
• Pair Virion on Frederick, move Fred onto the nearest Mountain (southwest), and drink an Elixir.
• Move Stahl to the left of Robin, trade her Bronze Sword to the top of her inventory.

[Czar_Yoshi]

Just for clarification, what's your flaw? -Skl?

If turtling the last few enemies becomes necessary, don't forget that you can line your units up side-by-side along a wall to give all but the end units one Pass-proof facing each. I don't think there are any ranged weapons in the first group, and there should be enough units who can survive a round of combat to cover the ones who can't (Avatar and Fred would go on the ends, most likely). You could probably even pass the elixir down the line.

[Interceptor]

Just for clarification, what's your flaw? -Skl?

Yes, running -SKL in this particular file, although I think several other flaws would be OK. You could probably even get away with something like -RES if you were a real badass; water trick probably still reasonably consistent even with -1 to that stat.

If turtling the last few enemies becomes necessary, don't forget that you can line your units up side-by-side along a wall to give all but the end units one Pass-proof facing each. I don't think there are any ranged weapons in the first group, and there should be enough units who can survive a round of combat to cover the ones who can't (Avatar and Fred would go on the ends, most likely). You could probably even pass the elixir down the line.

Thanks, I'll keep this in mind. There are no ranged attackers on the map other than the boss, fortunately. If a chance to make a line-wall presents itself, maybe it'll be useful. Unfortunately my team is kinda beat to hell after the first two Enemy Phases, and I don't have any Vulneraries. Might need to run it again with more efficient use of heals in Prologue.

Speaking of Enemy Phase, the AI is trolling me during Turn 2. Even in the case where Barb #2 is in range of Fred and Barb #1 isn't, sometimes #2 goes for Robin and leaves #1 un-injured by Fred (since he can't get to anyone), although the Mercenary always goes for Fred. So I may need to either figure out new positioning, or come up with two branches to deal with the case where the AI acts like a dumbass.

[Interceptor]

Anyway, I'll post some screenshots later [...]

And now it's later. Layout at the start of Turn 2:

During Enemy Phase, Sully/Vaike trades hits with the Soldier (who goes after them 100% of the time), Stahl is beat to hell because of a counter from the Barbarian who died last Turn, and Frederick took a shot from the other Soldier. Miriel has also arrived, and note that she can perfectly reach where Lissa is standing for a Pair-up.

Something worth pointing out: Lissa on Turn 1 could take Chrom from Robin, and toss him to the left (or do a Switch/Separate instead). This makes the movements more complicated, but does give Robin the freedom to jump to another partner, albeit one who won't allow her to double. Might be a key to a more reliable clear.

Next, the layout at the start of Turn 3 (using the steps listed previously):

Here, we have the result of Turn 2 shenanigans. Robin killed the Soldier that wounded Fred after having Chrom unequip his weapon, and Stahl moves to trade away her Tome for a Sword. On EP, she battles but cannot kill a fresh Barbarian. Miriel Pairs with Lissa, blasts the other Soldier, and Vaike finishes the deal (in this case, the Soldier didn't have Vantage so he didn't get hit, but he would be in no danger even against Vantage+/Luna+). Frederick/Virion took the Merc down to almost nothing, and badly injured another Barbarian.

Note that because of where the Merc ends up, it's possible to position Sully such that she can counter him on Enemy Phase and finish him off at a high hit rate. She gets doubled, but a Stahl support will stop that, and she is in no danger of dying as long as Lissa heals her first. Needs 16 HP (with a +2 DEF support) to survive, which is attainable.

---

I'll probably alter this to handle the case where enemies don't move as expected, but if you find yourself in the Turn 2 screenshot layout, then you've already won the chapter. Fred and Robin can use the last of the Elixir to heal up and button themselves up against the wall, the Merc will kill himself on Sully, and then you have all of the remaining enemies in front of you and blocked by the mountains. Since nobody is behind you, it's easy to kite from there.

[Interceptor]

I am waving the white flag on this one. I've probably beaten these nine guys about thirty times now, but there are subtle variations in enemy movements (even though my moves don't change) that sometimes require adjustments. The alternate scenarios are usually quite manageable, but there are too many for me to detail individually (if there were only a couple of branches that'd be one thing, but there are more). Fortunately, the most common outcome is the one that I've already posted.

Oh, one extra little "gotcha" that I neglected to mention before: sometimes the Barbarians can start with Gamble. This is supremely annoying if they get a crit (Gamble gives them listed crit on everyone), but you can't do anything about it anyway, and at least it lowers their HIT a little (in all cases but one, you have WTA on them).

Anyway, the remainder of the strategy, beginning from the start of Turn 3:

Possible variations:

• Mercenary: a true bro, that always winds up here to the right of Frederick, no matter what.
• Bottom Barbarian: sometimes this guy is an asshole and goes for Robin instead of Fred.
• Top Barbarian: will always go for Robin unless he gets axe-blocked by the other Barbarian, in which case he'll try to get to Fred but can't quite make it. This means that you'll have a fresh Barbarian after enemy Phase, which can complicate Turn 3 somewhat.
• Soldiers: these guys just do whatever the hell they want. Sometimes they are both on top like in the picture, sometimes both on the bottom side, sometimes one in each zone. The good part is, they are very rarely a factor during Turn 3 because of how far back that they start, so you can clean up the other enemies and deal with these guys last. If they combo-attack you, kite them. If they split up, pick one to focus down with your scrubs (you have three ranged attackers) and deal with the leftover one next Turn.

And your movements:

• Go back in time to Turn 1, and trade Stahl's Sword away with Frederick. Stahl's offense and DS attacks are irrelevant anyway.
• Move Fred/Virion two squares to the west and eat an Elixir (if needed).
• Move Vaike/Sully one square east onto the Mountain, and analyze the situation. If Fred is only facing a couple of Barbarians, consider leaving a Sword at the top of his inventory. If there's a Soldier in range (and especially if he has Luna+), consider giving Fred the Iron Axe, or removing all of his weapons. In either case, take the Elixir from Fred, and drop Sully to the south.
• Move Stahl on top of Sully. This makes it so that she doesn't get doubled, and gives a little bit of extra DEF and HIT.
• Switch Miriel/Lissa, heal Sully. Sully only needs 16 HP to survive a Luna+ Merc. Lissa only needs +1 MAG over base to ensure this even under the worst case scenario. Basically it's guaranteed.
• Move Robin/Chrom to the left of Vaike, and take the Elixir and heal if necessary. She should only face a single Barbarian, the one she injured last Turn.

During this next Enemy Phase, Robin will kill a Barbarian, and Sully will kill the Mercenary. Best case scenario: Fred kills the second Barbarian, and the two remaining Soldiers are split; just pigpile one of them and then kill the other. Worst case scenario: Barb/Merc died, but Fred couldn't do any damage because you had to unequip; in that case, rush in the opposite direction of the Barb/Soldier and clog the squares behind you. You'll have to kite a little bit until they are weak enough to focus fire.

And that's it. You should have the south side wrapped up by Turn 5, and the guys north of the bridge are a piece of cake by comparison. Even though the boss does move, there are only seven units to deal with, forts to use, and plenty of running room for kiting. Plus, you can use the 2-range ability of the boss against him by forcing him to attack over a river, for example. Protip: use the forts to heal everyone up before you start, to conserve uses of the Heal staff.

-----

So, no more crying about this chapter. I just whupped it for the umpteenth time, with a +SPD Robin that has pretty modest stats. It takes less than a minute to see whether or not the Robin/Chrom Dual Strike will work, and less than five minutes to get from the title screen to the death of the last guy on the bottom half.

Unless anyone has any input or whatnot, the next update will be the final one: I'm just going to add one more screenshot and consolidate everything into a single post that can be perma-linked and given to anyone who is having difficulty. If there's any need for it, I can come up with a few good opening moves for the top half as well.

[Interceptor]

Alright, I lied; one more tidbit before I rope everything together.

So, I've noticed that one advantage of having a really fast/consistent clear of the bottom half, is that I can afford to spend extra time and effort messing around and brainstorming on how to approach the top portion. After all, if I screw up and die, it only takes ~5-6 minutes to reset the table and try another experiment. I stumbled upon something that I'm calling "Son of Water Trick", AKA nope-a-dope.

It turns out that the combination of the water placement in this level, and the effect of Frederick's +1 MV to his Pair-Up partner, allows several places where you can ford a water tile in one Turn. Take a look at this screenshot, of a setup where I've dragged all of the mooks to the right towards Chrom/Frederick, and the boss to the left where Robin/Vaike and Lissa/Miriel are hanging out.

This is easily accomplished by having Robin blast a Soldier from beyond his reach on the left, and Chrom dumping Frederick across the river on the right. The boss moves, and as the only 2-range enemy on the map, he'll go for Robin while everyone else makes a beeline for Fred. Next Turn you just Pair Fred back on top of Chrom, and walk back across. With the enemies in a tight cluster, you can repeatedly keep walking Chrom across the river and forcing the mooks to change direction to reach him. It costs 5 MV to enter Water, and Frederick's +1 allows you to land on the Plain on the other side. This next screenshot is what happens next Turn, after I cross:

You can keep this up forever. Occasionally an enemy will peel off towards the Robin group (you can see in this SS that two of them went west), but she has plenty of running room to kite (by the way: Stahl, Sully, and Virion are in the extreme lower left below the Mountains), and can also cross the river relatively quickly (walk on, pass her partner to the Plain, second Pair gives a unit to her. Next turn, the unit on the other side takes her partner, and the lone remaining unit Pairs with her and she walks across). It's easy for her to fight on the river, because she can occupy a Water tile with only one facing, with Lissa on the other side, completely protected from Pass. It's pretty easy to just give Robin every kill from the top half if you are patient enough, though at this point Frederick ought to be close to level 2 and/or A-rank Lance so it's worth getting him that last extra bit if you can.

You sure can do some crazy shit in this game.

[Jotari]

I can't help but wonder whether or not that was intentionally designed.

[Interceptor]

I can't help but wonder whether or not that was intentionally designed.

I know, right? It seems like too much of a coincidence that there are so many things in this chapter that fit neatly together. Here's a couple that I have noticed in particular while I've been playing (some which I have already mentioned):

• The Sully/Vaike + Lissa/Miriel maneuver. The four of them can almost perfectly kill the LHS Soldier, which depends upon Miriel trading the Iron Axe to Vaike for WTA.
• Frederick + Vaike is 1 mt away from OHKOing a Mercenary, unless he gets +STR (unlikely) or A-rank Lance (difficult, requires 30 combats)... but notice how every Merc on this map has a defensive position on a Forest to prevent a Player Phase kill even if you manage to pull either of those off.
• Barbarians can't kill Stahl even with Luna+. He isn't doubled, and perfectly survives with 1 HP as long as he has WTA.

Stuff like this makes me wonder how much the designers actually thought about the interactions between units. I think that people give the map layouts a lot of crap, but it's born out of ignorance; the designs are actually pretty clever in places. Edited June 20, 2014 by Interceptor

[Jotari]

I'd say the total movement to cross the water was intentionally put in to do so but I'd say the abuse of it to constantly trick the AI into chasing after them was an oversight.

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

You sure can do some crazy shit in this game.

No kidding. That's a hilarious and great find.

Stuff like this makes me wonder how much the designers actually thought about the interactions between units. I think that people give the map layouts a lot of crap, but it's born out of ignorance; the designs are actually pretty clever in places.

Personally, I don't have a problem with the early map design. A lot of those smaller maps are pretty creative, with plenty of key points to base tactics around. It's some of the later maps that basically boil down to "big open plain/room with barely a fort/forest/staircase in sight" that annoy me. Those are, admittedly, relatively few, but boy do they ever stick out like a sore thumb.

[shadowofchaos]

As I did for most of your Lunatic+ advice... I'm going to steal it and make my channel have more views show it in action.

[Bloo]

So on my first time giving this a try, I pulled a DS on both of the hits when a DS is needed. However Chrom missed both. :c

[Interceptor]

I'd say the total movement to cross the water was intentionally put in to do so but I'd say the abuse of it to constantly trick the AI into chasing after them was an oversight.

Probably. The fording trick does work as a good opening maneuver, just on its own. Normally the Merc/Barb by the forts won't attack you at the extreme reach of their range on the bridge, but if you "aggro" the group by invading their space with a Frederick ford, you have finer control over where they will move (in other words, you can funnel them into a situation where they have WTD). Plus the spot on the RHS is great for Frederick to make his D-Day invasion, since he'll only face a single Merc that he can WTFPWN with his Silver Lance.

Personally, I don't have a problem with the early map design. A lot of those smaller maps are pretty creative, with plenty of key points to base tactics around. It's some of the later maps that basically boil down to "big open plain/room with barely a fort/forest/staircase in sight" that annoy me. Those are, admittedly, relatively few, but boy do they ever stick out like a sore thumb.

This is true, and I agree. It seems like the map designers tend to run out of creative gas towards the end of Fire Emblem titles. There are a few obvious examples of PartFour-itis that Awakening has inherited from Radiant Dawn.

As I did for most of your Lunatic+ advice... I'm going to steal it and make my channel have more views show it in action.

Aright. Let me know if you need any details on the particulars, and I'll link the video when you finish it.

The specific spot to attack the Soldier in the upper half, by the way, is from the square southwest of him. That drags the Mercenary over to counter Robin on Enemy Phase. And I'd advise making sure the boss doesn't have Hawkeye/Luna+, because that's a pain in the ass to deal with (~20 damage a shot, oustrips Lissa's healing even with a Miriel support).

EDIT:

So on my first time giving this a try, I pulled a DS on both of the hits when a DS is needed. However Chrom missed both. :c

Make sure to use the Rapier, not Falchion. It has +10 HIT and some crit chance.

Edited June 20, 2014 by Interceptor

[Bloo]

EDIT:

Make sure to use the Rapier, not Falchion. It has +10 HIT and some crit chance.

I was, which is the odd thing.

[Interceptor]

I was, which is the odd thing.

Well, it's not THAT rare to miss one, in the end. Base level Chrom has 104 HIT with his Rapier, and the Barbarian has 38 Avoid on the Mountain. Chrom gets +5 HIT from WTA, which puts his "listed" HIT at 71%, or ~83.5% True Hit. He's still going to miss one time out of six.

Missing twice... is sort of like getting hit with a ~3% crit chance.

[PKL]

Cool strat. Do you think Chapter 3 would be possible with a spd Avatar though?

[Interceptor]

Cool strat. Do you think Chapter 3 would be possible with a spd Avatar though?

Should be, though with some potential manipulation of the skills on the left. Once you clear out the LHS and cram into the corridor, you are home free, because then it's just a matter of walling and kiting. Frederick is still strong enough to carry you for a bit, especially if you got him to level 2 and A-rank Lance.

The biggest downside of +SPD versus +DEF in Chapter 3 is that Robin cannot really handle fighting 3-4 enemies at once, even with Fred or Kellam. In exchange, though, you get much better offense: with Chrom or Sumia, you've got doubling potential available on the Archers/Soldiers. That's a big deal, even if you have to rig a DS on Turn 1.

My next pair of pet projects is to 1) clean up the Chapter 1 strategy for a +SPD Robin, and 2) see how Chapter 3 plays out. It's not going to be strictly impossible, but overall I expect it's going to be harder than doing it with +DEF.

[shadowofchaos]

Aright. Let me know if you need any details on the particulars, and I'll link the video when you finish it.

The specific spot to attack the Soldier in the upper half, by the way, is from the square southwest of him. That drags the Mercenary over to counter Robin on Enemy Phase. And I'd advise making sure the boss doesn't have Hawkeye/Luna+, because that's a pain in the ass to deal with (~20 damage a shot, oustrips Lissa's healing even with a Miriel support).

I've got a hell of a backlog of videos already.

And I'm doing work with something else for now.

Expect it next week at the earliest >_>;

[Madotsuki98]

Thanks so much, Interceptor, I had just about given up on Lunatic+ after getting two consecutive DGs.....and then dying from a 4% crit with 29% hit. Also that one reset where the map spawned with 14 Luna+ enemies. You're a genius. you know that?

This makes me wonder what the actual strategy guide for Awakening says about Lunatic and Lunatic+....