Fire Emblem

Oh whoops...well, if he doesn't take wallace, I want him.

I suppose that he can make strategic use of Lowen and Raven to minimize damages, and the fact that his team has a lot of earlygame units helps a lot, too. As long as Rebecca dodges frequently, and he doesn't forget his vulneraries, there shouldn't be much trouble.

Also, to make this clear, Matthew is free for thieving utilities (stealing, door and chest-opening), is this correct?

Yes.

Except in the case of the Member's Card where you can use Legault for that. Or am I wrong?

Y'know, if it weren't so damned hard, Sword of Seals would be better for drafts. 11 magical units, there's almost always 3 characters in a class, sometimes more.

Sacred stone?

If we do another draft, Sacred Stone and Binding Blade would be great options. The main issues would be handling the different routes in Binding Blade, and handling the monster encounters in Sacred Stone.

EDIT: And the Member Card thing depends on if what I saw about a Level 1 Matthew being too slow to steal it is true. I neglected to check like I said I would, but basically, if its true that level 1 matthew is too slow, then Legault is allowed to steal it (since I KNOW he's fast enough.)

edited 9th Jul '11 12:16:54 PM by Barrylocke

Psst, barry, it's your turn.

No wait nevermind, Xiphonii confused me.

edited 9th Jul '11 12:31:42 PM by hnd03

It's still my turn, I confused everybody

I told Xiphoniii to let me know if he wanted Bartre or Hawkeye since I couldn't make up my mind and I was going to be gone most of today—just trying not to hold things up. Turns out he apparently wants Wallace, so I'll have to decide myself.

Gimme a few minutes an hour, I have a dog to walk... my internet stopped working...

edited 9th Jul '11 2:03:36 PM by montagohalcyon

So I'm on vacation til like Wednesday, but I have an emulator on my phone. The problem is I don't have a save file with Hector mode unlocked. Could someone put up a completed .sav file on like Mediafire or something? .sgm and .sps save states aren't compatible just so you know.

Well, I still think Hawkeye is a Pretty Cool Guy, eh lives in a dessert and doesnt afraid of dragons, but having another fighter in the early game will be really helpful.

Bartre is my final pick. I'm tempted to do something weird like S-ranking him in bows (although I probably won't because of Louise and Lyn).

Xiphoniii is up, remaining characters are Hawkeye, Wallace, Vaida, Renault. BTW, Hawkeye is a decent tank himself; not as good defense as a knight, obviously, but lots of HP.

edited 9th Jul '11 2:28:11 PM by montagohalcyon

I'll take Wallace then. Come, break your weapons upon his armor!

@My lack of healers in the draft: I'm not too worried, considering I've gone through many files in each FE game I own without a healer before, though that is going to lead to some trouble in later chapters, when the enemies get pretty dangerous.

Now for some Radiant Dawn!

Rebirth 3: Half finished

I've decided: to split this little report thing into two parts for this chapter, one for the normal Dragons, and another for Dheginsea, the boss.

On Dragons: For those unaware, Dragon Laguz are the strongest of the lot, and come in 2 colors. Red Dragons are Physical, dealing physical damage and having high defense, but lacking in res and magic. White Dragons are the opposite, with high magic and res, but low strength and defense. Both types have absurd amounts of hp (68 was the lowest I saw), and are all pretty slow. Since my team consists mostly of physical fighters, the Red Dragons are incredibly sturdy, but less powerful (though by no means weak), while the White Dragons are more powerful, but easier to kill. There are also the far rarer Black Dragons, which attack physically, but are generally faster, more skillful, and have more well rounded defenses then the other two colors, but the only ones who fight directly are Kurthnaga (on your side) and Dheginsea (an enemy).

On Spaces: In the tower of Ashera, there are certain spaces here and there throughout the tower with magical effects. Cover raises defense by 10, Wardwood raises res by 10, and Healstones heal you by 10% of your total health.

On Skills: Currently, I have 3 Nihil scrolls and 2 Parity scrolls to hand out. Those are useful because they protect units from the incredibly powerful skills possessed by the bosses. I gave the Nihil scrolls to the three brothers, Oscar, Boyd & Rolf, and I gave the Parity scrolls to Kieran and Tauroneo.

For simplicities sake: I'm going to skip out on the Unit comments for this part, since it's already long enough. I'll talk about the individuals later, but for now have some random comments.

Random Comments: Red Dragons on a Cover space are the hardest to kill things I have ever had to fight, and only Crit spam and Mastery Skills prevented them from taking numerous turns to kill. White Dragons deal ridiculous amounts of damage, and are able to 2 shot Ike and his 65 hp. I'm also pretty sure that 6 of these 40+ dragons could defeat the entirety of the Black Fang, Nergal, all of his Morphs, and the Dragon at the end of Blazing Sword.

Up next: The eponymous duel with Dheginsea, the Black Dragon King!

I actually had to think about this last choice for a while, surprisingly. But in the end, I've decided on...

Hawkeye

Which means that my final team is:

Hector, Marcus (till chapter 15) Matthew (for stealing) Serra, Lucius, Kent, Dart, Fiora, and Hawkeye.

I'll probably set up my liveblog and then begin.

edited 9th Jul '11 10:50:37 PM by Barrylocke

So how does this work? Do we each set up a liveblog?

Either that, or we could just make a separate topic here in the videogame forum. As I said earlier, I'd like for this to be separate from the main topic so we don't clog it up. If we do make a topic, it's a matter of figuring out where the topic should go.

EDIT: I also took the liberty of reposting the rules, with the alterations that was decided on during the drafting process. Consider this the final rules draft. (But if I missed anything that was discussed before, let me know )

Basically, six people will enter in a drafting pool. One by one (in predefined order), each participant in this pool will choose one character from the list of selectable characters. There will be 36 characters available in all, so each participant will be able to select a total of 6.

Once this is done, the real tournament starts. The objective is to complete Hector Normal Mode (no Lyn Mode beforehand) as fast as possible (in terms of total turns used) using ONLY your drafted team of characters and a choice few that are allowed for everyone. The other characters you may not use (not even to support your characters with) except for: - Meatshielding (without weapons) - Rescuing non-drafted characters (but NOT characters you have drafted; this is basically so you can protect frail characters) - Holding weapons and items - Recruiting other characters - Shopping

Another exception is that Matthew (and only Matthew) is allowed to open chests and steal items even if you haven't drafted him. You can still draft him normally to be on your combat team.

One more exception is Legault, who is allowed to steal the Member's Card (AND ONLY the Member's Card) from the thief in Chapter 20. Again, you can draft him normally to be used on your combat team.

If you, for some reason, fail to abide by these rules, then you have to incur a four turn penalty for every character you've used for a purpose other than one listed above per chapter. This is four turns regardless of the importance or frequency of the foul committed. Like Kent can solo a chapter (4+ turns) or can rescue Lyn once (4+ turns).

During your run, you are expected to keep track of your total turn count and report often on your progress in some detail. If you don't, it might be mistaken for inactivity and thus grounds for disqualification. You are also expected to play fair. If you cheat, shame on you! No Save-states please!

All gaidens must be visited with the exception of 23x, and obviously 19xx. All remaining gaiden chapters count towards the turncount with an exception of Chapter 28x. (Barrylocke note: 23x=Genesis, 28x=Night of Farewells, 19xx=Glimpse in Time.) T

The first six people to sign up will enter a drafting pool. You will be randomly positioned in the pool (1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6). The order of drafting will be 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 1, ... until all 36 characters have been drafted.

Characters allowed for everyone to use are Hector, Marcus (Only when forced, up to and including chapter 15), Merlinus and Athos.

This will be done on HNM.

edited 10th Jul '11 12:38:07 AM by Barrylocke

A Lright then, time to make my final pick. Hm... I only have a choice between Vaida and Renault right? I choose Renault, since a healer is rather helpful in the final few chapters.

I'm left with Vaida

My final team is Hector, Eliwood, Priscilla, Wil, Legault, and Heath, and Vaida.

edited 10th Jul '11 5:51:51 AM by hnd03

Um...what if I don't remember how to get these chapters? And mont, were you still keeping trackk of who took who? Might be useful to get a list up...

Reordered by joining time:

• hnd 03 — Eliwood, Priscilla, Wil, Legault, Heath, Vaida

• Alfric — Rebecca, Lowen, Dorcas, Raven, Jaffar, Renault

• Barrylocke — Serra, Kent, Lucius, Dart, Fiora, Hawkeye

• Xiphoniii — Matthew, Erk, Ninian/Nils, Rath, Wallace, Nino

• montagohalcyon — Bartre, Guy, Lyn, Farina, Pent, Louise

• Jonnas N — Oswin, Florina, Sain, Canas, Isadora, Harken/Karel

Everyone has Hector, Matthew (only for stealing/opening doors/opening chests/digging in the desert, no combat), Marcus (stop using after chapter 15, "Talons Alight"), Merlinus, and Athos. Also, Legault can steal the Member Card in his recruitment chapter.

Also, gaidens and requirements:

The Peddler Merlinus — get a torch from the village in the upper-left in "In Search of Truth"

Port of Badon — make sure at least one Caelin soldier survives "Whereabouts Unknown"

Imprisoner of Magic — Finish "The Dread Isle" in under...20 turns, I think? 15 turns

Night of Farewells — Nino and Jaffar survive "Battle Before Dawn" and talk to each other during it

Battle Preparations — Automatic

The Value of Life — Finish "Victory or Death" in under 20 turns

The other two, "A Glimpse In Time" and "Genesis" would be difficult to get under these conditions. Glimpse in Time requires Lyn mode, Genesis you have to get 700 experience in Living Legend and Pent is stealing all your kills, so anyone without a flier to get him out would be kind of screwed. So they're not included/allowed.

Edited with hnd's corrections.

edited 10th Jul '11 7:01:14 AM by montagohalcyon

So I'm thinking Eliwood will support with Hector and Marcus, Priscilla with Heath, Legault with Heath, and I'm not sure I want to support Heath and Vaida. I guess Vaida and Merlinus may work.

15 turns for 19X.

And what about 32X?

edited 10th Jul '11 6:42:09 AM by hnd03

I was assuming it was impossible to get without doing Glimpse in Time or Genesis, but in a discussion many pages ago apparently someone did.

If it is possible, you have to finish "Victory or Death" in under 20 turns to get it. Fairly certain that's the right number this time.

EDIT: Now that I looked it up on Serenes, yeah, they only mention the turncount. So I guess we're doing it?

edited 10th Jul '11 6:53:51 AM by montagohalcyon

Serenes Forest agrees. No requirements beyond finishing in 20 turns.

Genesis and 19XX just expand on Nergal's death quote.

So, we're all going to be doing individual liveblogs for the draft? Would the format that I use for my little chapter reviews in here work, or should I write it out differently?

Speaking of those little chapter reviews... Here's some more Radiant Dawn!

Rebirth 3: Finished.

Dheginsea: Is one of the most ridiculous bosses ever, I swear to god. He has 75 total might, 50 defense, and the Mantle skill allows him to heal as much hp as he has luck each turn, of which he has 30, and he has 100 hp. He also has the powerful Ire skill, the Dragon mastery, which triples damage dealt. Nothing I could have could possibly live through that, which is why the Nihil skills are coveted throughout the endgame. Even without Ire being a threat, he can still 2 shot anyone in the game, save for Ike with Ragnell on a Cover space.

Ike & Boyd: Took the upper right path at the beginning and rushed the main mob of Red Dragons. After taking care of them, with a few close calls, they backtracked and went for the central staircase and took out the dragons guarding Dheginsea.

Oscar & Rolf: Took the upper left path and went after the main mob of White Dragons. There wasn't too much trouble thanks to the convenient Wardwood spaces, but it wasn't a fast job. Afterwards, they went up the upper left staircase and assisted Ike and Boyd with the Dragons guarding the main staircase.

Kieran & Reyson: Took out the Dragons who started on the leftmost branching path, and then went to assist Oscar and Rolf. Once the main Dragons were defeated, Kieran went to the top right corner to stop any reinforcements, while Reyson helped Oscar, Boyd, Rolf and Ike with defeating Dheginsea.

Tauroneo & Edward: Went down the rightmost branch and fought off the Dragons there. They then both went to assist Boyd and Ike. After Ike and Boyd went to defeat the Dragons guarding the main staircase, Edward and Tauroneo split up to guard the bottom branching areas and stop any reinforcements.

The Duel with the Dragon King: Only Ike, Boyd, Oscar, and Rolf could actually harm Dheginsea due to his ludicrous defenses, while Reyson supported them with his Recovery Galdr, to stop them from dying. The fight took two turns and every point of damage that could be gotten mattered. Even with all of the attacks, he still only barely fell.

Rolf: Doubled him for 7 damage a shot, and was the only one who was even remotely safe since he had 3 space range to attack from, and not even Dheginsea can get him from there.

Oscar: Could only hit him once a round for 7 damage, but was very helpful in defeating Dheginsea. He was the one Dheginsea attacked on his turn, and Oscar dealt just enough damage to allow him to be defeated in the next turn.

Boyd: Did the most damage thanks to his support with Ike, for 2 shots of 14 damage a round.

Ike: Struck the finishing blow against Dheginsea, and got very lucky, since he didn't have Nihil, but never got Ire'd.

Up next: Rebirth 4. The battle with the strongest mage in Tellius, and the last survivor of the 4 heroes, awaits before the final battle.

Wow, that was really long.

edited 10th Jul '11 7:29:31 AM by Alfric

I like this format. Works for me.

I wouldn't mind occasionally posting here, with a few chapter summed up. Just one question, can I post pictures in this forum directly from my PC? Or would I need to host the pictures online?

Meanwhile, in Fire Emblem 6, I got to the boss of Chapter 12x, attacked him a few times with Killing Edges and Wo Dao and missed... and then he criticals Fir with his first attack. With a Hand Axe. 19% to hit, and 14% to critical hit. I swear, this game can annoy me so much...

I might as well try Chapter 12 in the Draft, then...