Seriously, castles are worthless in Fire Emblem. Surprisingly the only time I can think of the heroes actually having to lay siege is Sword of Seals where someone informs Roy the troops have finally battered down the gate. This game, Blazing Sword, and Path of Radiance all have examples of the protagonists just waltzing into forts and such.
Anyway, Forde and Kyle are not quite as manly as Ephraim or as well-equipped as Orson, so they're going to hang back from the front lines.
Ephraim opens up in style by criticaling the second soldier to attack, while Kyle and Forde trade weapons with Orson and he javelins an archer. Ephraim then Reginleifs the knight, Orson trading with him to open the door and counterkill the fighter within. But not the mage because for some reason I switched back his javelin to an iron sword.
Orson and Ephraim withdraw to meet the incoming enemies, both critical. Forde and Kyle trade around a few more things. Orson goes back to the chests and grabs the second key from the mage; Ephraim advances and heals.
Nothing happens for a while, Orson opening chests and trading off to Forde, Ephraim moving ahead and getting even more criticals with Reginleif. I wish he could double with the steel lance so I didn't have to waste it.
The archer moving to attack Ephraim ends up in just the right spot to get javelin'd by Orson catching up, but he misses the second throw on 82% displayed hit. So Ephraim finishes even though this'll probably waste time.
Blah blah stuff dies Orson goes left Ephraim right, this makes no sense with their move but Orson has the javelin and...I don't know. Ephraim gets another critical. I bet when I have him pull out the Killer Lance nothing will happen.
Changed my mind, Ephraim will go left. This is the part where I should just have Orson carry him to the finish but I want more experience and another Elixir.
Ephraim reaches the throne room first and javelins a couple of fighters in addition to the archer. Who cares about the weapon triangle? Also, the archer was killed by a 5% javelin critical, which I don't think I've even seen in Ephraim's unpromoted class.
Ephraim then javelin criticals the knight. This is ridiculous. Orson OHK Os the archer for his Elixir, Ephraim breaks the javelin counterkilling the mage and two soldiers, just the boss and one shaman left.
Ephraim heals up and counterkills the boss, Orson deals with the shaman, Kyle and Forde take his gear, and seize.
15 turns, 54 total. That could have been a lot faster if I'd ignored treasure and EXP, but you know what? Seeing Ephraim go on a rampage of seven criticals, none with a killer weapon and at least two on 3-5% chances, is priceless and completely worth it.
