Oh hey, Ludveck's made a move. He captures Lucia (told you she was useless) and cuts her hair (ok?) and sends the lock to Elincia as a threat. Then he besieges us. Yay.
This update will be on the more strategic side, as opposed to anecdotal, because I played through the chapter in advance (the thought of resetting in the middle of the damn thing makes me shudder because it is 15 turns of enemy unit spam).
Base Prep
Conversations:
1) Calill*** - Recruitment conversation.
2) Haar*** - Conversation between Elincia and my favourite beast Haar. Physic staff (YES).
Shops:
Steel Greatlances for Nephenee and Steel Poleaxes for Haar. I also pick up a Killer Axe to compensate for Haar's speed (which is decent but not amazing).
Nothing else of note can be done in Base Prep, so we move on to the important stuff.
Map 2-4 [Endgame]
Victory Condition: Defend for 15 turns OR Kill Boss
Defeat Condition: Elincia dies OR Defending Area is seized
Roster: Everyone on the team including the people I don't intend to ever field again.
AMITI obtained. *whoop*
First off, this is primarily a Defend map. The fun thing about defend maps is that you tend to be horrifyingly outnumbered by the enemy, which tends to send an obnoxious number of reinforcements into the map almost every turn. Secondly, there are two ways to play this map:
- Slow and steady, using Nephenee and Haar as the primary defenders, and supporting them with other units (in particular the Elincia and Leanne combo) - Low risk/low reward (more experience, but no tomahawk and the satisfaction of maiming Ludveck)
- Blitzing down using the Elincia and Leanne combo, and taking out the Boss (Ludveck) quickly. Elinca can, with her superawesome sword Amiti, and a little luck, ORKO Ludveck, making this tactic a matter of getting the units into position while avoiding the multiple bowmen around - High Risk/Middling reward (the opposite of the above).
If you take a look at the map
◊, you have a hilariously small number of units in comparison with the enemies, and most of your army is comprised of Allied Yellow Units.
Good news: They're extremely competent. Bad News: Hard Mode reduces their numbers, and gets rid of a few Generals that really help with the defense of the right side. Worse News: Why do you want to reduce the limited amount of experience you get?
Also, reinforcements pour in from one entry point on the left, and one close to the Boss. Left has more crossbowmen and thunder mages (Bad news for Haar), while right favours Generals, Armours and Archers.
There are two main pathways towards your units, and ideally you want to hold the higher ground. It isn't very apparent in the picture, but each "part" of the map is on a different elevation, with the Boss on the second lowest level. One thing you can do is hole up on the topmost level and defend two sets of stairs. The other is to take control of the central area, which is slightly higher than the Boss, and defend two chokepoints - stairs and a corner between a wall and a sandbag.
For the purpose of this liveblog, I won't use a single Allied unit, and I'll be using the more defensive strategy (partly because I got very close to breaking the enemy lines, but didn't quite make it, sadly). I'll be opting to control the central area of the map, as it makes rushing the Boss easier in the event that you crack the enemy lines fast enough.
Ok, so the two checkpoints in question. Ideally (in my dreams), Haar takes the Right and Nephenee takes the Left. No thunder mages for Haar to die horribly on, and no Generals for Nephenee to do insignificant damage on. This almost never works in practice though (or it does, on Easy mode), as Nephenee just doesn't have the defense to deal with the crossbowmen, whom she cannot dodge. Risking Haar, who has the HP to shrug off at least one thunder mage, is safer than risking Nephenee.
We still need to take control of our first target though, so let's get cracking.
Nephenee and Mordecai position themselves near the sandbags and wait for the imminent battle. Mordecai uses up a Laguz stone so that we can relish his amazing defense for one more chapter. Haar swoops in, and does his thing, opening the battle with a critical. Elincia moves closer to the action; she's Galdr'd by Leanne and gets another kill. So far so good. Calill in the meantime stand over a small crack in the wall that, if unnoticed, can screw you over. She comes with a Meteor tome... so you can blast things with it, or you can give it to Heather for some hi-jinks with another character later on.
The first few turns are essentially the set up for the defense. Mordecai is invaluable in my run - taking hardly any damage, dodging like a champ, and making sure that Nephenee doesn't die to the initial rush of armoured units that hit hard.
Oh yeah, an archer had 20 Strength. I want an archer with 20 strength too.
Haar is nigh invincible in his position, and does very well, backed up by Marcia who joins us on the first turn. I hand over the Speedwing she's carrying from the previous map, but I don't end up using it, as Haar picks up a point of speed I wasn't really expecting.
After the initial wave of units are cleared (...on turn 10), Nephenee and Haar devote themselves to the defensive role, supported by the extremely badass Elincia+Amiti+Leanne trio. Calill does well for herself too, and helps anchor the right side with her magic.
My favourite moment ever in this map happened today. Nephenee takes a 35% chance to hit, and is left reeling with 3HP left. I stare at my screen in dismay and prepare to reset. She Wrath-crits 5 dudes one after another, dodge a thunder mage, and two archers, before doubling a General whom she somehow fails to critical on. Meanwhile, I bite my fingernails to shreds. After all of that awesome, she gets a near perfect level, neglecting only her Magic stat. "Wow" doesn't quite fit.
I got really lucky with levels actually, with no one except poor Geoffrey getting a bad level. He got only +HP. The others got 4-6 stat ups.
Yes, the Crimean Army does in fact show up, in true cavalry fashion, late. Kieran and Geoffrey pull their weight (a little) and take a few kills before Kieran misses pathetically and is sent back to safety. Geoff does a fine job as befits a captain however.
Indeed, nothing of note happens other than the nail-biting Nephenee incident. In an ideal situation, I'd use a pincer formation to take out Ludveck - first killing the crossbowman (and Elincia's only real threat) using Haar and then taking out Ludveck from the other side. Sadly, this was not to be, as my breakthrough happened about 2 turns too late. Oh well.
Still, everything works out great, and some immense fanservice happens - I would strongly recommend that you check out the video because it is awesome. In a superbadass awesome manner.
New Characters:
Haar (Level 11 Dragonmaster)
Base stats
46 HP 30%
23 Str 70%
02 Mag 05%
24 Skl 70%
20 Spd 30%
13 Luck 45%
23 Def 60%
7 Res 20%
12 Con
42 Wt
First thing to note here is that he's the opposite of Jill. Second is that his growths aren't really that good. It doesn't matter. He'll still kill everything. He'll cap strength before he hits level 10 promoted, and he'll always have just enough speed to suit his purposes. He's essentially a blue flying tank that naps a lot. His bases carry him through the game, seriously. He's endgame viable right now. His, er, relationship with Jill kinda bothers me though, which is why I avoid supporting the two. Fine, free love and all that jazz, but she's 18, and he's, what, 40?
Calill (Level 6 Fire Sage)
Base stats
32 HP 35%
09 Str 25%
19 Mag 50%
18 Skl 60%
18 Spd 55%
16 Luck 55%
11 Def 15%
17 Res 50%
7 Con
7 Wt
Calill's not too shabby actually, and packs a pretty useful punch in her CRK chapters. Good speed, luck and magic plus the most powerful (other than Dark) magic type make her a good offensive option should you have a thing for immolation. There are other viable options for Fire magic however, discounting Tormod permanently, and I wouldn't recommend prolonged usage myself. She's great in the CRK chapters anyhow - so abuse her then.
Items Obtained:
1) Physic Staff [Base Conversation] - Heals User Mag+10 HP at a range [1~(User's Magic/2) + 5]. Heals 20HP when equipped. The best staff in the game. If you see one, buy it. Sell things if you must. They offer tremendous tactical advantages, especially in the hands of a powerful mage.
2) 2xSteel Greatlance [Shop]
3) 2xSteel Poleaxe [Shop]
4) Killer Axe - High critical ratio axe. Great for slowish or weak characters that need a boost.
5) Nullify [Enemy Drop] - Nullifies bonus damage. Stick it on Haar, and never worry about another enemy again.
6) Silver Greatlance [Enemy Drop] - The upgrade for a Steel Greatlance, and appropriately overpowered.
7) Arms Scroll [Hidden] - Next to a wheel barrow thing, on the lower-right corner of the map.
8) Tomahawk [Boss Drop - Missed] - Best throwing axe.
9) Dracoshield [Steal - Missed] - +2 Def. This is on an enemy on the left corner of the Boss area, so it takes some severe acrobatics to pull off properly. You need to keep Heather and the enemy in qustion alive, while blocking off Ludveck's offensive. Not fun, trust me.
Further commentary:
- First off, should I stick to being tactical like in this update, or should I post my more stream of consciousness updates as I have so far? Any feedback would be kind of welcome. That former means that I can play at my own time, and keep a record of stuff to put in updates, while the former means that I update whenever I play.
- This happens to be my favourite chapter in the game. It's just the right mix of tense and exciting. I'd strongly recommend trying to get the Boss within 10 turns - it's a great way to play the map. You can challenge yourself in so many ways... I love this chapter.
- I did not in fact reset this chapter. Thanks to Nephenee showing us why she's so highly regarded in FE circles.
- IKE!
- Map credit goes to Vincent ASM of Serenesforest. Sir, your site is the best FE site. My thanks.
Next Time: Of Battles and Heroes and Furry People Politics
