Fire Emblem 6 - Race #2

[El Grillo]

Chapter 8: 14/54 turns

Chapter 8 is our longest chapter yet, but it's actually fairly straightforward. We need to get Roy through a long, winding corridor filled with enemies, and we need someone to kill the boss, a General (the first promoted enemy we've faced). There are several chests, split into two groups, but I'm limited to only two - the Knight Crest in the closer group, which I can use Astore to unlock (once someone else has opened the door for him), and the Guiding Ring in the farther room, which requires Marcus with the Chest Keys from Ch07 traveling at close to maximum distance.

Unfortunately, I took well over 50 screenshots, so I'll have to skip some of the more straightforward combat forecasts.


PP01 begins. The party advances, with Lance and Marcus each killing a Soldier.


PP02 begins. During EP01, the Archer hit Clarine, who survives Steel Bows and Steel Axes this chapter with 2-3 HP remaining. I've stocked her with plenty of Vulneraries, so she'll be just fine. Rutger started this chapter at 9.31, and I want him promoted ASAP for the boss-kill on this and upcoming chapters. In addition to the usual promotion gains, Rutger gets an extremely useful +1 move and +30 crit as a Swordmaster. Combined with the Killing Edge (to say nothing of the Wo Dao coming up), this means Rutger gets 65+ displayed crit on all but the luckiest enemies. I'll need him to get 69xp during this chapter. Anyways, Ellen heals Clarine, everyone advances, Clarine and Lance rescue-drop Rutger forward, and Marcus picks up Roy.


PP03 begins. During EP02, Rutger took a hit from the Mage and dodged the Soldier. Rutger, Wade, and Lugh each kill Soldiers, and Lugh levels up. Noah and Lance rescue-drop Rutger forward, and Marcus drops Roy off onto the pillar.


PP04 begins. Lugh and Noah kill a Knight and a Soldier, and Noah levels up, getting only +1HP. An inauspicious start, to say the least. Rutger kills another Soldier, reaching level 10. Marcus picks Roy up, and Lance moves ahead to clear the way.


PP05 begins. During EP04, Lance intercepted an Archer and gained a level. Let's just say he's not losing his Employee of the Month award any time soon. Rutger moves forward and promotes to Swordmaster. It's a shame he's forgoing 10 levels of stat gains, but we'll soon have enough strong mounted units capable of handling combat and killing bosses. Moreover, a couple of upcoming chapters require Clarine to carry Rutger the maximum distance, and then for Rutger to move 6 spaces to the boss. At EOT, the Archer is in range to take a pot-shot at Clarine, but she'll live even if it hits.


PP06 begins. 3 completely undrafted units join, and they'd be utterly forgettable, except that Ogier carries a second Armorslayer. Barth breaks the Wall, Ogier trades Rutger the Armorslayer, and then Marcus rescues Roy, Clarine rescues Rutger, and Noah rescues Lugh.


PP07 begins. Clarine levels up healing Lance. Noah drops Lugh, Lance kills an Archer, and then Marcus runs straight at the clump of enemies. Even burdened by Roy, he doubles them, and he gets significantly better odds with his Hand Axe than Lance with a Javelin.


PP08 begins. During EP07, Marcus weakened the Knights and missed a few attacks, leaving a Mage at full HP. The team advances and kills most of the enemies, and Marcus rushes forward. Note that Clarine is only in range of the Archer, who can't kill her.


PP09 begins. During EP07, the Knight missed Lugh, who then killed him. Lugh kills the Archer, who missed Clarine, and levels up. Noah trades the Door Key from Lance and unlocks the first treasure room, then canto-moves forward. Clarine rescues Rutger and moves forward. Lance takes Rutger from her. Roy waves to Lillina as Marcus carries him past her cell.


PP10 begins. Lugh kills the Mage, who missed Clarine during EP09. Marcus pulls out the Silver Lance (psst I totally didn't forget to give him a Hammer) to 1-round the Killer Lance Knight. Noah trades blows with the Mage in the throne room, Clarine rescues Lugh, and advances with Lance carrying Rutger.


PP11 begins. Noah picks off another Mage and levels up, getting a more respectable +3 stats. Marcus' position last turn prevents the enemy Thief from blocking the corridor, allowing him to proceed and Lance/Clarine to follow.


PP12 begins. Offscreen, Astore has been moving towards the treasure room, and now he's able to unlock the chest with the Knight Crest. The mounted units keep moving forward.


PP13 begins. All of the units get dropped off around the throne. Noah has killed all of the Mages, and the Knight is immobile, so Roy is totally safe.


PP14 begins. Marcus heads into the second treasure room and unlocks the Guiding Ring. Lugh kills the Knight, and Lance and Rutger team up to kill the boss. Roy seizes.

Stats:


Not too much to say about this chapter in hindsight. I wouldn't be able to save a turn without giving up the Guiding Ring and forcing a riskier boss-kill with Marcus.

[Fenn]

Hey guys, probably won't get my report out today. had a nasty case of food poisoning last night and still dont feel like doing anything but lying down staring at the ceiling. will try to get c8 done tomorrow.

[Jowy]

Hey guys, probably won't get my report out today. had a nasty case of food poisoning last night and still dont feel like doing anything but lying down staring at the ceiling. will try to get c8 done tomorrow.

No need to rush, we're going through these way quicker than I expected

Also I took a quick look at 8x and it seems like the chapter where you'll land the killing blow on us.

[Fenn]

Chapter 8:

This chapter is a little hard to describe, mostly because of its ungodly length, but I'll do my best here to condense events to their essential parts. We want to get Marcus, Allen and Roy over to the throne as fast as they can move; second priority is opening as many chests as possible. Our slower units will handle the middle chest room, but the chests past the throne room can only reasonably be opened by Marcus or Allen before the chapter's over. We'll have some help with the treasures in the form of our newest unit, the Thief Astore. Astore is interesting for being a thief that can also fight very well; he brings good bases all around, high Constitution and C-rank Swords from the get-go, so although his Thiefly talents are mostly replicated by Chest and Door Keys, he still brings a lot to the table.

Enough preamble, let's get started:

From their starting positions in the southeast, Marcus and Allen can each ORKO a Soldier on the first turn, allowing everybody else to move up, with Sue being in position to counter the Archer and Astore carrying Roy forward - his 8 Con is enough to lift Roy. Shanna finally uses the Angelic Robe she's been hauling around since Chapter 4 - she hasn't had a free turn until now.


Lott finished off the Archer on Turn 2, Saul heals Sue, and everyone else moves forward, with Sue taking Roy from Astore. Allen and Marcus get in position to counterkill a Mage and some Soldiers; these two have the highest movement and the best Enemy Phase combat among my team, so they'll be soaking up most of the experience on this map out of necessity.


Turn 3 begins with only the Knight left. Allen chips him and Shanna barely manages the knockout. Offscreen to the left is a Horseslayer Knight and two Soldiers that we need to kill, and only Marcus is in range to do it, so I have to reset if the Horseslayer connects (about a 50/50 shot). Sue passes Roy to Marcus, who runs forward and drops Roy safely out of range while equipping the Hammer; even weighed down by it, he can still double the Soldiers.


The Soldiers and Knight suicide on Marcus to give him an exceptional (for Marcus) level. There's an Archer and Soldier approaching, so Marcus Hand Axes the Archer to death while the others try to catch up. Allen is holding Roy and Shanna has Astore; Saul, Lot and Merlinus are quickly being left behind. Already, our group is splitting apart, with Marcus out in front, our other mounted units and their hangers-on a little ways behind, and the miscellaneous footies bringing up the rear.


Allen gives Roy to Marcus, who chips the nearby Archer with his Hand Axe. Everybody else keeps going forward, bypassing the Soldier from before - Lot can handle that one.


Turn 6 begins with some no-names I'll never use charging into an empty room. They-

...Oh, wait, I drafted one of them, didn't I?


This is Ogier/Oujay. His stats are thoroughly uninspiring. Worse than Dieck, even. He's alright on Normal mode I suppose, but we won't much need a nother 5-move sword user. His biggest claim to fame is bringing us our second Armorslayer.


For comparison, Astore's statline.


Anyway, for the moment Ogier proves useful in finishing off a Soldier Marcus couldn't quite kill. Everyone else moves up, and Marcus gets ready for an encore of his world-class "equip a Hand Axe and kill everything on EP" routine.


Only two Knights remain. Sue offs one, and the other will be fed to Ogier for lack of anybody else to do it.

Marcus picks up two Door Keys from Roy and opens up the near door to the treasure room, cantoing to the far door on the same turn.


This picture depicts the start of Turn 9. On Turn 8, Allen opens up the top-left chest (Light Brand), then moves next to another, allowing Shanna to trade for the Chest Keys and grab the bottom-left chest (Killer Bow). Sue claims the top-right chest (Elfire), and Astore moves in range of the bottom-right chest (Knight Crest!). Marcus opens the far door and moves exactly five tiles away from Roy, so he can rescue him away next turn.

Then, on Turn 9 Astore unlocks the Knight Crest chest. Allen runs up to him, trades for the Crest and promotes on the spot:

I can't say I've ever promoted a unit at Level 11 before, but Allen ought to be good for a while yet. Importantly, this brings him to Swords-D, allowing him to use the Armorslayer against the boss.


After that, Shanna and Sue rescue-drop Allen ahead so he can keep up with Marcus. Marcus grabs a set of Chest Keys and Roy and runs ahead. He'll face off against a Killer Lance Knight on Enemy phase, but he can survive a critical hit and won't be facing any more combat after that anyway.


Marcus drops Roy and runs forward. Roy's placement is crucial here, as two Thieves spawn from either side of this narrow corridor and move north. Without Roy where he is, those Thieves would block the path, slowing down our clear. Meanwhile, Sue moves in range of the Mages in the throne room to rid us of them before Marcus has to go near.


Turn 11 begins. Sue managed to kill two Mages on the interturn thanks to a lucky critical on the first, so the road is clear for Marcus, Allen and Roy to charge ahead. Shanna's going to hang back and kill the Thieves for some experience, after Astore steals their Lockpicks of course.


Turn 13, and we're close to being finished finally. Marcus drops Roy in front of a stationary Knight and moves for the treasure chamber. The Mage there tried to heal after taking damage from Sue, but fortunately he chose to hide in a spot Sue can still shoot him from. Roy pokes the Knight for some more EXP.

The boss, Legance, is both tough and evasive, but he's not so bad on Normal. Allen has to land two of four Armorslayer hits at 46% odds each, which is shaky but not unreasonable. Luckily he managed it on my first run:


With the boss dead, all that's left is some cleanup. Marcus looted the Guiding Ring (for Saul) last turn, and now collects the Elysian Whip (for Shanna), while Shanna herself kills Cath for a level. That done, Roy seizes on Turn 14.


Chapter 8 - 14/49 turns
Quite the marathon, eh? The next few chapters ought to be much shorter than this one though.

[Jowy]

Turn Counts after Chapter 8:



I've caught up in pace now that I have a high movement unit of my own (two in fact!). However next chapter Fenn will have a huge advantage with his flier pick.
I'm hoping that my Miredy pick will pay off when we get there. If she saves less turns than Thany, then picking her was a mistake.
Picking third was probably the worst spot to be in a three person draft. You miss out on the two cavaliers and are forced to pick Dieck or early game is a lost cause. That means the other two will still get one of Thany/Miredy/Clarine with their second pick.

[Jowy]

I had a precise planned path for the next chapter and I managed to take so long to play and report that I forgot it

[Fenn]

Hey, that's better than me, I've just been preoccupied. And very tempted to just bumrush through 8x and write a brief summary.

[Dreylin]

Just wanted to say that I've been reading with interest and am patiently(ish) waiting for the next Chapter!

[BRickAstley]

Just wanted to say that I've been reading with interest and am patiently(ish) waiting for the next Chapter!

[David Corperial]