Sacred Stones SG

[Fenn]

So, I kind of forgot it was my turn here. I'll try and complete the chapter and have a report up tomorrow.

[Fenn]

Chapter 16: Ruled by Madness

Before we start, Amelia promotes into 8 movement and a unique sprite(!). As a Great Knight she'd only have 11 Con, which is pretty low for axe use. Additionally, Gilliam gets the Boots and a Talisman, Neimi gets Metis's Tome, and L'Arachel gets an Angelic Robe.

Chapter 16 pretty tough if you don't know what to expect. The first groups of enemies will sit patiently and let you come to them, but after that it gets ugly. Once you cross any of the green lines, two Sages - one with Purge - spawn in the northeast, Rangers and Valkyries come from the southeast, and every enemy in the map except
the boss rushes you, pincering you in the central corridor. Thieves appear on a turn timer too, so if you want all of the treasure you seemingly have to dive into the teeth of this trap.

Lute, Saleh, Duessel and Rennac will head north to clear out the enemies there and get some xp; everyone else is going east to do the brunt of the fighting. The only dangerous guy is a Priest with a Berserk staff, but compared to the 21 Mag Druids from Chapter 14 he's not much to worry about.


Duessel breaks out the Devil Axe to make it to S Axes quicker. The enemies on this side are all unpromoted fodder so we won't be seeing much of this.


Gerik gets his promotion to Hero after sniping one of the Myrmidons. Good lord look at that Defence, only Gilliam has that much.
Meanhwile L'Arachel is still spamming Barrier every turn to try and catch up in experience. Amelia and Gilliam are taking turns
carrying Natasha around so she can keep pace, she has a pretty important role to play later.


Duessel keeps on keeping on - he hits S Axes from that second combat, so from now he can pull out Garm whenever he needs a +5 speed boost and become one of our faster characters.


Getting closer to the trap...Lute's advanced just far enough to triggers this:


There's a lot of them, but Cavaliers are no match for our combat units anymore.


Here's what I wanted Natasha for: with A rank Staves, she can Warp Amelia into this little pocket without triggering the trap. From here, Amelia can slay the Druids and pick off the reinforcement Sages before they can run wild with Purge.


The Druid with Luna does a number on Amelia, so Franz joins her up there. Over on the west side, Rennac picks up a pretty cool axe.


Now to spring the trap. Gilliam plants himself in range of the Knights in the throne room; offscreen to the south, Gerik does the same for the Warrior and Mercenaries.


This guy is beefy enough to take two hits from Gerik, so he gets a crit instead.


Right behind the Cavaliers, a Valkyrie and some Rangers pop up.


You know, when I first played Sacred Stones I thought this chapter was brutal. I always got my army pinned down in the central corridor and people always died to the Swordmasters or the Purge Sage. This time I have everybody locked down: the Sages will die before accomplishing anything, the Swordmasters can barely hurt Gilliam, and the Druids are too busy whiffing with Eclipse to do anything dangerous.


So we mow through all the reinforcements, and a few turns later a lone Thief shows his face.


It doesn't end well for him.


Rennac picks up a Talisman and 10,000G in other junk from the treasure chests while everybody else piles up around Orson. Duessel puts up the best numbers, so he gets the first shot.


Unfortunately he missed the first blow, so Lute wastes a charge of Excalibur to finish off Orson, because this guy seriously has too much evasion.


After completing Chapter 16, both of your lords can promote at any time! I take the opportunity to do so right away, since Ephraim was at max level and Eirika needed this to stay halfway relevant. Promoting only gives them a horse and stat boosts; no second weapon types like the FE7 lords.

In other promotion news, Natasha and L'Arachel have reached Levels 19 and 13 respectively, so they should probably get promoted before the next chapter; I'll leave it to Katon to decide what paths they take.

Save

[Jowy]

Nice play with the Warp staff! I always save items like that for later and then end the game with full charges.

[Katon]

Ditto Jowy's remark - very clever way to completely short-circuit the map's biggest challenge.

I'm leaning towards making Natasha a bishop (for slayer) and L'Arachel a mage knight (anima magic's usually better than light magic), but I'm going to stop and do a unit progress report before I play, so if either of you have strong opinions you'll have a chance to talk me out of it.

[Katon]

Status report time! (with no portraits, unfortunately, because I'm feeling a bit lazy). It's been spoiled for length. As usual, stats are color-coded as follows:

Below Average
At Average (rounded down)
Above Average

Ephraim, level 1 Great Lord
HP 38 – 39.8
Str 19 – 18.8
Skl 23 – 20.8
Spd 20 – 20.2
Lck 16 – 16
Def 13 – 14.6
Res 10 – 11

Even a slightly-more-fragile-than-average Ephraim is still fantastic.

Natasha, level 19 Cleric
HP 28 – 27
Mag 12 – 12.8
Skl 10 – 8.5
Spd 15 – 15.2
Lck 16 – 16.8
Def 4 – 4.7
Res 13 – 15.9

I'm doing these in the current party order, so there's not a whole lot of rhyme or reason to who comes next. Natasha's very slightly below her averages, but once I promote her she'll still be a perfectly competent unit – at least as long as she stays clear of physical attackers.

Neimi, level 2 Ranger
HP 28 – 30
Str 13 – 15
Skl 19 – 17
Spd 20 – 19
Lck 13 – 14
Def 10 – 9
Res 11 – 12

The sad part is, her strength is being propped up by a few good recent levels. Still, she's a solid unit, and she's finally picked up a second weapon type.

Gilliam, level 4 General
HP 44 – 46.1
Str 19 – 19.55
Skl 13 – 14.65
Spd 12 – 11.7
Lck 9 – 8.7
Def 19 – 21.45
Res 8 – 9.8

Did we promote him a level or two early? I forget. Anyway, he's doing poorly by his own 20/4 standard but is still perfectly capable of taking a ton of physical attacks, which is all you want out of Gilliam.

Gerik, level 2 Hero
HP 44 – 45.9
Str 21 – 19.95
Skl 18 – 19.4
Spd 18 – 18.3
Lck 11 – 11
Def 18 – 15.5
Res 9 – 8.5

Nice to see someone outperforming their averages. Nicer to get to play with an even-better-than-usual Gerik.

Rennac, level 1 Rogue

Astonishingly enough, the character who hasn't gained a level since joining is dead on his averages. I'll skip the details.

Amelia, level 3 Paladin
HP 37 – 36
Str 14 – 15.5
Skl 19 – 18
Spd 20 – 20
Lck 20 – 21
Def 13 – 12
Res 11 – 11.5

The nice thing about the recruits is that if you can get them up to speed, they're usually pretty good. Amelia's one of our better units despite being pretty much dead on her averages.

Lute, level 10 Mage Knight
HP 36 – 32.6
Str 20 – 25
Skl 14 – 15.4
Spd 23 – 19.6
Lck 15 – 20.6
Def 8 – 9.2
Res 14 – 19.2

The averages assume that the character's been promoted at level 20 and hasn't been fed stat-boosters, so between Lute's early promotion and the Angelic Robe we've fed her they're almost completely irrelevant. I'm just posting them to ask what on earth is going on with her speed? I don't remember her getting multiple Speedwings, and even if someone fed her one or two she's still crazy speed-blessed. Lute's been a good crutch for some of the nastiest maps in the game, although she gave up a chunk of long-term potential to do so.

Franz, level 2 Great Knight
HP 39 – 39
Str 16 – 17
Skl 16 – 14
Spd 20 – 19
Lck 9 – 10
Def 12 – 13
Res 6 – 6

Well, he's not Amelia, but he's still a perfectly cromulent cavalry unit.

L'Arachel, level 13 Troubadour
HP 32 – 22.5
Mag 12 – 11
Skl 9 – 10.5
Spd 15 – 14.5
Lck 18 – 18.5
Def 5 – 6.5
Res 14 – 13

HP-boosting items give +7, so either we've given her two and she's gotten massively unlucky, we've given her one and she's been somewhat lucky (which is how I vaguely remember it), or she's gained 14 HP in ten levels (er, no). I'm torn as to whether to promote her now or give her another couple of levels, because on the one hand a staff-only unit with good bases is the textbook case for early promotion but on the other Saleh, Lute, and Natasha give us a solid promoted-mage corps so I might be able to get away with spending a little more time stat-gaining.

Duessel, level 10 Great Knight
HP 43 – 42.7
Str 18 – 18.1
Skl 12 – 12.8
Spd 14 – 12.6
Lck 9 – 8.4
Def 19 – 17.9
Res 9 – 9.6

Tankier than Franz but much slower when he doesn't have the S axe equipped: yep, that sure is Duessel. He's been a nice crutch so far and will presumably continue along those lines.

Saleh, level 6 Sage
HP 33 – 32.5
Str 18 – 17.5
Skl 20 – 19.25
Spd 15 – 16
Lck 13 – 13
Def 10 – 9.5
Res 16 – 14.75

Welcome to the team! Saleh's maybe 5% worse than promoted-at-level-20 Lute and Ewan for a tenth the effort; with Lute promoting early and Ewan trapped in no-easy-grinding hell, he's our best magic user, and he seems to be rising to the challenge so far.

Marisa, level 12 Myrmidon
HP 28 – 28.25
Str 11 – 9.1
Skl 15 – 15.85
Spd 15 – 17.2
Lck 14 – 12.5
Def 5 – 5.05
Res 3 – 4.75

Well, my grinding last time out and a run of strength levels got her to the point where she can be marginally useful on the upcoming Massive Deploy Everyone map with a sufficiently axe-oriented set of enemies, but she's still more likely to die there after sitting on the bench in the interim than she is to become a regular party member.

Colm, level 6 thief

Colm's probably not coming out again unless Rennac dies, especially if we can't find any lockpicks, so I'll skip the stats.

Dozla, level 2 Berserker

One level gained since joining and single-digit speed as a promoted unit? Yeah, you're also bench fodder that I can afford to skip.

Garcia, level 11 Fighter
HP 34 – 33.6
Str 12 – 12.55
Skl 11 – 9.8
Spd 8 – 8.4
Lck 5 – 5.8
Def 6 – 6.75
Res 2 – 2.05

No red stats and he's still this bad. We really, really, really need to keep Duessel alive, or else grind up one of the gains-axes-on-promotion units' axe ranks.

Knoll, level 10 Shaman

Still hasn't fought a battle. May never fight one, although I suspect hitting resistance plus our thinned ranks will get him out on the Big Deploy Everyone map. Anyway, no point posting his starting stats.

Forde, level 15 Cavalier
HP 30 – 31.65
Str 11 – 10.6
Skl 12 – 12.5
Spd 12 – 12.05
Lck 8 – 10.15
Def 9 – 9.8
Res 6 – 4.25

Between his stats, his level, and his horse, Forde wins my vote for Benched Unit Most Likely To Be Pressed Into Service If We Lose Someone Else, with Marisa as his only real competition. This is not to say I have any intention of unbenching him absent an emergency.

Ewan, level 1 Mage

Yeah, this is the wrong variant to be a late-joining fragile recruit.

Eirika, level 1 Great Lord

Her averages are massively inaccurate due to her early promotion, and Fenn posted her new stats, so I'll skip all that. Getting enough strength and defence to do anything is always Eirika's problem, and mediocre levels + skipping a third of the game so far have not made that easier. At least the promotion boosts kick her back into the vaguely usable range.

Innes, level 3 Sniper
HP 32 – 32.5
Str 15 – 14.8
Skl 14 – 13.8
Spd 16 – 15.9
Lck 16 – 14.9
Def 11 – 10.4
Res 9 – 9.5

Not quite as good as a 20/3 Neimi (including ours) but much less trouble to raise. He's needed to recruit a unit next map, so he'll get at least one chance to show what he can do.

Myrrh, level 1 Manakete

Did I forget to write up a new unit? Oops! Well, I'll make her a package deal with this coming map's recruitable character. No combat seen yet, no point discussing stats.

[Fenn]

Yeah, I promoted Lute at level 14 to help with chapter 10. I don't remember giving her a Speedwings, so I think she's just been gaining Speed constantly. She's really good against most enemies, but has a hard time against magicians unless she wastes Excalibur on them. Gilliam was promoted at Level 17 or 18, I'd have to check the save to be sure. He's a mobile 19 Defence at this point, which was pretty handy for me.

Can't wait for Chapter 19! I'm sure I'll lose half a dozen units there unless I can manage to do another Warp skip.

[Katon]

Map done! I was able to get by without promoting L'Arachel, but Jowy will almost certainly want to - she's level 16 now, so not many levels get wasted. We also need more bows if we're going to have Innes and Neimi out at the same time; Jowy probably doesn't care about that, but Fenn will on chapter 19.

Syrene the falcon knight will join if Innes talks to her or she survives the map. The civilians won't join, but if they all survive we get a rescue staff. Enemy reinforcements will be coming mostly from the top-left, with a few druids popping up near the boss and warriors coming from the lower-right forts once I cross the black line. The general plan is pretty clearly to hole up on the island, have Innes and Neimi shoot most of the wyverns, and cross the black line once I've dealt with all the starting units; killing the boss ends the map, so I have a prospective way out of reinforcement overload.



Pre-battle shenanigans include promoting Natasha, getting L'Arachel ready to promote as soon as the risk seems to outweigh the benefits of extra experience, buying tomes for the two staff-users to throw around once promoted, and a lengthy mental debate about whether a stealable Dragonshield and Elixir constitute sufficient reason to drag Rennac along. With Innes getting his day in the sun, I need to rest two good units + Myrrh; Lute is an obvious candidate, being overleveled and not terribly tough, but Duessel is a fantastic emergency tank even if I don't want him to see combat. What winds up deciding me is the observation that the Dragonshield is going to need me to throw Rennac at the front of the first wave – Berserker A is lugging it around – and the Elixir isn't worth the effort on its own. Lute and Rennac sit this one out. (Note from the future: that berserker doesn't move until someone comes in range, so there would've been no rush. Score one for lack of map practice). I also feed Amelia a Body Ring and shuffle around some equipment.



We open with L'Arachel using the Warp staff to move Innes further forward, accelerating Syrene's recruitment by a turn and gaining a massive pile of experience. The rest of the party, which is almost entirely mounted, charges forward. Innes recruits Syrene turn 2, she switches to her javelin to deal with the druids, and I briefly kick myself for not giving Innes a Pure Water to pass her before noticing that two of the three druids have Luna so it makes absolutely no difference. Everyone else makes it onto the island at this point, with Amelia far enough forward to reach the leftmost forest where she's barely in range of the leading wyverns.



Turn 3 is when they really start coming in numbers. Saleh and Syrene need healing before they can deal with any promoted units – particularly a problem in Syrene's case – and we're about to get an influx of promotees down south. Franz kills the sage who Saleh had weakened, Natasha heads off to physic Syrene, L'Arachel heals Saleh, Innes and Syrene take out the two injured druids, and Neimi kills the nearest wyvern rider. Meanwhile, Gerik and Gilliam get their axes ready down south.



Irritatingly, keeping Innes out of the earlier wyverns' range prevents him from getting close enough to shoot the two hovering over the lake. He kills the one next to Amelia, Neimi's longbow + Syrene account for one of the two hoverers, and I sit back to hope the other one decides to target Innes rather than one of the civilians (nope. No rescue staff for us). Ephraim strolls out to give the next pair of wyverns someone to attack, Amelia replaces Gilliam down south since he's slow enough to get doubled by valkyries, and Saleh starts chipping away at the heroes crossing the river.



We can now push ahead up north because Natasha in woods is completely immune to black magic. She might take forever to get a kill without help or crits, but that front is locked down. Eirika and Syrene kill the wyverns hidden by the combat screen and we're set there. Down south things are a bit messier, mostly because the lower river-crossing hero has a Brave Axe (hits x2). This is definitely and emphatically a job for Gilliam. He survives a round of combat with ease, Saleh fries the guy, and we're into a stage of the battle that's just reinforcement-juggling. The biggest dangers between now and crossing into the black box are 1) the high crit chances on the swordmaster and berserker (avoidable by using a Hoplon Guard) and 2) the chance that Natasha will get hit by four 25% hit chances in a row when Flux-wielders start coming after her (she came closer than I'd have liked, but survived). As such, fast-forward til the black box reinforcements are in position:



These guys still aren't that hard. Gerik sets up in the top forest, Eirika sets up diagonally up-right so she can only be attacked one at a time, and I settle down to feeding as many of them to Eirika as possible. Natasha chips away at the boss for experience, L'Arachel heals every minor hurt that pops up, and Saleh eventually finishes the boss as our second-highest-leveled unit. In hindsight I absolutely could have dragged Rennac along in place of Duessel the security blanket, but I'm pretty happy with how experience wound up getting spread out.

Next time: Monsters, eggs, and lava.

[Katon]

Also, last new units of the game!

Syrene is the game's one flying prepromote, and while her stats aren't Dozla-bad they're noticeably worse than any of the other fliers if you manage to get them promoted. She also doesn't join at a higher level than her likely peers the way Saleh or especially Duessel do. She's really only useful if some idiot went and got Cormag, Tana, and Vanessa all killed. So welcome to the team, Syrene.

Myrrh is a manakete, one of the series' odder classes and one which tends to show up about every other game. She has terribly low base stats, but her 'weapon' is a stone that turns her into a giant dragon and offers crazy stat boosts: Strength +12, Skill +12, Defence +15, Resistance +20 as long as she's using it. Dragon breath is also a very good weapon, with stats that fit in reasonably well in the legendary tier including the obligatory strong vs monsters. Add in impossibly good growths (90% strength growth, and that pales compared to HP and Defence guaranteeing +1 and offering a chance at +2) and Myrrh's a weapon of mass destruction . . . til the dragonstone runs out of charges. Absent glitch-abusing shenanigans, she gets 50 attacks and that's it - and I vaguely recall that turning into a dragon to tank ranged attacks also costs a use. She'll come out at some point, but no need to break the glass quite yet.

[Jowy]

Mental note for myself: Play the chapter tomorrow!
It should be a cakewalk

[ipecac]

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