Fire Emblem 6 - Race #2

[Fenn]

Chapter 7:

Chapter 7 is a real doozy of a map. Not only do we have to bust through a horde of enemies to reach the boss, who summons reinforcements if you don't kill him first, but there's a grand total of eight villages to visit, and up to three NPCs to recruit. Not only that, but in order to unlock the gate to the throne our team will need to pay a visit to the Vendor in the northwest. With only eight units at hand, this is a true test in multitasking.

Some notes about the map: enemies I've crossed out only appear on Hard mode and aren't relevant to this run. Enemies circled in green will wait for us to step in range before attacking. Every other enemy aside from the boss will bumrush us on the word 'go'. The Priests up north carry Physic staves, and will heal any damaged red unit for 13HP apiece. It's an intimidating setup, and for a while I had no idea how to tackle it. Eventually I worked out a quite reliable strategy, but it's still far from easy.

Down south you can see my deployed units (plus Lance, who does nothing of note this chapter). Allen and Lott will take the west side, pushing up to the Vendor so Allen can procure some Door Keys and unlock the gate to the boss. Everyone else will take the east side; our first priority is to clear the way for Marcus and Roy to get to the throne while recruiting Jerrot (aka Zealot); second is to visit all of the villages in the east. I'm going to pass on the western villages - a Torch Staff and Longbow are nice, but I don't have the units to spare to pick them up.


First off, Marcus OHKO's the nearest Knight with a Hammer. Sue carries Roy forward, followed by Thany who drops Roy and tradeswaps Marcus to a Silver Lance so he can counter a nearby Merc. Merlinus approaches the nearby village. In the west, Lott dispatches a Knight with his Steel Axe and Allen steps in front to counterkill a Merc of his own.

Turn 2

Our movements this turn are a bit complicated. The Mercenary who attacked Marcus on the interturn has been healed partially by the Physic Priest you can see, but he's still low enough for Roy to take care of. The Soldier is weighed down by his Javelin, so Sue can double him with her Steel Bow and let Shanna take the kill. Finally, Marcus runs up and cripples a Knight with a Hand Axe; that Knight will run away for a few turns to heal, so even though we didn't quite kill him it was still helpful to attack.


In the west, Alan reaches the Vendor; he buys 2 Chest Keys and 11 Door Keys, which ought to last us a good long while. Also shown is the situation in the east, where the first NPCs have spawned this turn. The Archer and Mage will suicide on Marcus, while the Soldier will attack Roy before getting killed by NPC Jerrot. Now, we want to recruit Jerrot without having to take a detour, so luring that Soldier towards Roy is important to make Jerrot move westwards. Also, NPCs can do whatever they want without penalty, so our friends in green will contribute some much needed extra firepower for this chapter.

Turn 3

As expected, Jerrot moved west, but we have a problem: Allen is trapped in the Vendor by a Wyvern Rider, and we need him to be in range of the door this turn. Marcus gallops across the map to chip the Wyvern with his Hand Axe...

...Allowing Lot to bring him down. Allen can move east onto the forest and take a potshot at the Cavalier east of Lot. Meanwhile Sue chips down the nearby Archer so Roy can earn some more XP.

We're also starting to visit the villages. Merlinus has claimed the Killing Edge and Shanna the Red Gem.


During enemy/NPC phase, more Cavaliers attack, but the NPC squad cooperates to remove them for us, leaving Jerrot in perfect position for Roy to recruit.

Turn 4


Saul Mends Roy who recruits Zealot, who moves east to shop later. Sue rescues Roy northwest so Marcus can take him close to the throne. Marcus is holding the Silver Lance here, so the enemy Wyvern will most likely go after Alan, who can double with an Iron Lance and soften him up for Sue to finish off.

Meanwhile, Merlinus and Sue visit two more villages. The Archer here can kill Shanna but he has bad odds of hitting so I'm alright with taking this risk. I realized I could have Shanna visit the northeast village first and leave the southeast for the last turn, but I didn't have to make any restarts after this point so it never came up.

Turn 5

Allen weakened the Wyvern just enough for Sue to shoot him down. Now we don't have to worry about him poking Roy or anything like that, and Allen can get some easy XP Javelining a stray Knight.


An approaching Mage gets Javelin from Shanna for his intrusion. Merlinus blocks off the southern Archer from Shanna and the undrafted units, while Saul appraoches the northwest village. Next turn, the Mage will be killed by the NPC cavaliers, allowing Jerrot to run to the eastern armory and buy four Javelins - I was running out of the things.


Back to the main event. Marcus drops Roy in seize range and sits next to the boss holding an Armorslayer. Since the boss will still live at the end of the turn, eight enemies will spawn from either side of the throne and go after us. But it's not as dangerous as it sounds - only two Mages can attack Roy, and they don't have enough attack power to kill him.


Enemy phase begins, and Marcus lands both Armorslayer hits! Some other enemies show up and shuffle around ineffectually; those Mages are actually blocking the Archers from attacking Roy, fortuitously enough.

Turn 6
Offstage, Shanna and Saul visit the last two villages in the east and Jerrot buys our Javelins.

With the boss left on a single hit point, Marcus can take the time to feed a Mage to Sue, and Allen can cherry-tap the boss, becoming even more powerful in the process. All the other enemies can only watch helplessly as Roy walks to the throne and seizes.

[pic 24]
Chapter 7 - 6/35 Turns
I really didn't think I'd be able to make it in six turns, but a little perseverance went a long way. I have to say, playing this way is making me think several steps ahead in a way that I never did for casual playthroughs...I find myself planning a unit's inventory based on exactly what combats they'll participate in and which weapons they'd want to use for it, whereas usually I mostly fill people up with whatever seems useful for them in general.

The Team:

Code:

Unit   Lv HP Str Skl Spd Luk Def Res
Roy    06 22  09  07  10  10  06  01
Marcus 03 33  10  15  11  10  09  09
Allen  11 29  15  10  15  07  09  00
Shanna 04 18  06  07  15  07  07  07
Lot    08 33  10  07  10  03  07  01
Saul   05 20  04  06  10  02  02  05
Sue    03 19  06  09  09  04  06  01

El Grillo, I'd say deploying a Thief is fine, but them using a Torch is not.

[Jowy]

Yeah you'll need to keep him out of combat though.

I've completed two test runs for Chapter 7 now I just need to do it for real :P

[El Grillo]

Sounds reasonable, and hope the RNG cooperates with you, Jowy

[Jowy]

Chapter 7:

Ooh boy. A ton of stuff going on here.

Every open village has an item in it. In addition we have an Arena, a Vendor, two Armories, two Chests, and two Gates.

What's important to us is the vendor (for our strategy), and a Hero's Crest that is hidden in the bottom right village.

This chapter took a long time to get right. At one point I had a strategy that got me through it and even gave me a few more items than I end up getting, but that relied heavily on luck, particularly in Chad's chances to dodge hits. He's so weak that he can even be 1-hit by the Wyvern Knights. I found a new route that sidelines Chad and is very reliable. This was a fun chapter to work through, so many different ways to approach it.



Dieck went northwest by himself. He can kill knights in 1 turn with a Steel Blade.
The others went northeast. Marcus attacked the knight, killed it in counter attack, lured in two more enemies and killed one of them.



Zealot and Treck entered the map. Noah will pop out of the Arena next turn.



Marcus rushed forward. The goal here is to manipulate Zealot's AI to move where we want him to move.
Having Marcus there will make the enemy knight move onto the forest tile to attack Marcus. Zealot will then move onto the southern forest to attack that knight.
We can then set off a recruitment chain and grab all three of em in one go.
Chad and Eliwood had to team up on the 10HP Swordsman to finish him off. They are very weak in combat



We looted the Killing Edge cause it happened to be on the way, but it is a very nice weapon to have.
Dieck killed an archer. Next turn is when it gets tough for him.



A Wyvern Knight attacked Dieck, but got counter crit on the second swing. Dieck gets another two-stat level up to keep up with the recent trend.
Noah was helping out Fir (a later recruit) train at the arena. He now entered the map for us to recruit.



Status update ^ We are in no danger anywhere



Here we pulled off the recruitment chain. Roy talked to Noah, Noah talked to Zealot, Zealot talked to Treck.

Welcome to the team Treck and Zealot!
Zealot is our new Marcus. They're practically identical as units. They'll fall off at some point, but that should not be any time soon.
Treck is a weaker version of the two paladins, but outgrows them if we can get him farmed.



What was annoying about this setup was that the enemies really wanted to attack Noah, who's not our draftee.
That is why we had to block the way with Chad, even though I'd rather have him visit an extra village instead.
Marcus switched sides. Together with Dieck they killed a cavalier.



Chad dodged all three hits. At least for our troubles we'll get to kill an extra unit with Roy.
Roy killed the cavalier with his Rapier, then was rescued by Treck to make up travel time.



Marcus visited the vendor and bought 10x1 door keys and 2x5 chest keys. Only gonna need 1 door key here, but I figured I might as well future-proof myself.
Having door keys will be useful so I don't have to protect and drag around a thief who could get 1-shot.
The chest keys were bought with similar thoughts. I invested 3000 gold with hopes that I'll be able to loot extra chests at some point with my faster units.
Having two stacks also means that if there are chests far away from each other, I'll have keys for both.



Merlinus will lure in the archer, who Chad will then attack. When injured, it'll get scared and flee.
Chad will then have an open route to the Hero's Crest village.
Zealot will lure in the remaining Wyvern Knight, who I was careful not to proc until now. We're dropping Roy next turn so we need the Wyvern Knight to be out of range.



Nothing special here, just setting up for the kill and the seize next turn. There will be a big surprise though.



Chad couldn't kill the archer but still got a level up.
After this, Merlinus looted the Psychic Staff (long range healing) and Chad the Hero's Crest.
Why was the Hero's Crest so important? It's what we need to promote Dieck to a Hero unit.
The next opportunity to get a Hero's Crest is in Chapter 11 and sounds horrible to get ("visit all villages"), and the other opportunities will be much later in the game.



Surprise! Eight units spawned behind the boss and moved immediately.
We had to drop Roy into their range cause it takes an extra movement point to seize the throne.
We cleared the way and even set up Treck for an extra kill and XP.



Originally I was using Marcus to clear the boss, but Marcus can't kill him in 1 turn. Dieck can.
Dieck broke the streak and got a three-stat level up. Skill is VERY nice to have (increases accuracy!), but I would like some STR, SPD or DEF one of these days.



We finished the chapter in 6 turns. But the rebellion isn't over yet! Next chapter we will storm the castle.

Oh yea, I made this:



Which might help in visualizing the route.

[Jowy]

This chapter really highlighted the fun of this variant for me, and I've found myself having a lot more fun with this than I first thought I would. Instead of taking my time and maximizing my units' power levels to steamroll the game, I'm trying to meet thresholds and shave turns, forcing me to carefully value my options and positioning in a way I've never forced myself to before. As always, looking forward to the others' thoughts.

I really didn't think I'd be able to make it in six turns, but a little perseverance went a long way. I have to say, playing this way is making me think several steps ahead in a way that I never did for casual playthroughs...I find myself planning a unit's inventory based on exactly what combats they'll participate in and which weapons they'd want to use for it, whereas usually I mostly fill people up with whatever seems useful for them in general.

The game almost feels like it was designed to be played this way, and it probably was, at least the LTC part of the variant.

It reminds me of Xcom Enemy Unknown, where you can leisurely make your way through the game casually. Then you start a new campaign on Classic difficulty and that's when the real game begins. Suddenly the game mechanics and map design actually matter.

[Fenn]

I doubt the devs expect you to be clearing Chapter 7 in six turns - in fact, an A rank in Tactics gives you 20 whole turns - but the game definitely encourages you to not waste time generally with its side-objectives, since otherwise turtling is very safe and easy.

Then again, the Tactics rankings for FE6 are bizarrely lenient...Chapter 1 allows twelve turns for an A-rank. Compared to Advance Wars's requirements it's not even on the same map.

[Jowy]

I doubt the devs expect you to be clearing Chapter 7 in six turns - in fact, an A rank in Tactics gives you 20 whole turns - but the game definitely encourages you to not waste time generally with its side-objectives, since otherwise turtling is very safe and easy.

Then again, the Tactics rankings for FE6 are bizarrely lenient...Chapter 1 allows twelve turns for an A-rank. Compared to Advance Wars's requirements it's not even on the same map.

There's a tactics ranking in 6 too?

I think the devs would never be allowed to make the official rankings hard to ace, even if they wanted to. In the later games, they had to make permanent death optional to appeal to the casual audience.

[El Grillo]

The Augury/Tactics screen becomes available at Ch12x.

Maybe Intelligent Systems thought Roy's promotion was properly timed, because during playtesting, he spent all of his time being rescued and never saw combat :D

[Jowy]

Gotta love this Chapter 8 boss, worst one yet.

[Jowy]

Chapter 8

After clearing the town last chapter, we now storm the castle.
Funnily enough what the boss says isn't an empty threat: There will be a lone archer taking shots at Lilina who's stuck in jail and can't fight back



We take the only route there is!
Chad will be useful here as he'll have time to loot all four chests in the first treasury.



First we bait the archer away from Lilina so she can live. Zealot will kill it when it attacks him.



Next Zealot runs ahead. He misses one of the javelin throws, but that's fine. We'll give that XP to Treck.
Chad and Roy killed the archer and Roy leveled up. Marcus then picked him up for a ride, as is tradition!



With this setup Treck got to counter-attack two enemies and leveled up from it. First of many to come!



Next we cleared a way for Treck to reach the mage and finish it off.
That front knight has a Horseslayer weapon, but he's just out of range and won't get a chance to use it on us.



Zealot 1-shot the knight with his hammer. Treck leveled up for the second time.



We couldn't kill all the enemies in this room. The archer who lived will attack Chad though, which won't matter.



Two knights and a mercenary join our team. They spawn in a closed cubicle and that's where they'll remain.



Dieck got in his only kill this chapter. He's just too slow to do anything on a map where routes don't diverge.



Quiet turn where we set up for the next fight. The enemies line up nicely here so that Zealot can kill the two on the right with his hammer, and Marcus can throw javelins at the two on the left.
Roy was dropped so he can kill the second knight. He'll also be switching rides in a bit.




We cleaned up, got a few levels, and kept riding on. These waist-high walls will play to our advantage as we take shots at the throne room mages.




We dropped down Roy again. If we don't get him this far out, the thieves will go side-by-side and block the corridor.
Roy can kill the knight and be picked up again, the paladins will then have full movement.




Treck gets his 4th level up! He had to burn through 6 vulneraries, but it has to be worth it.
Oh yea, meanwhile Chad's been looting the chests. We got a: Light's Brand, Killer Bow, Elfire and Knight's Crest.
That Knight's Crest could become relevant sooner than I thought with how fast Treck is catching up.



The boss wasn't AS slippery as I first thought.. I was trying to hit it with a hammer in my test run and only got a 25% hit chance.
With an armorslayer the hit chance is 50%. Out of 6 hits, we need to land 3 to kill him to finish on the turn I was aiming for. No biggie.
We got an immediate return for the chest keys we bought last chapter. They allowed Zealot to run for the Guiding Ring, getting there just in time, without a tile to spare.
With the Guiding Ring we can promote Lilina or Ray (not to be confused with Roy) to gain a staff user.
If you're wondering about Lilina btw, she's still in her jail cell. We don't need to talk to her, just keep her alive. The two thieves won't attack her (though they did open the jail door, for shits and giggles I guess).



Marcus killed the boss and we finished the chapter in 14 turns. 13 might be possible with optimal movement, but I didn't try for it.
Story-wise we get to tell Lilina that her dad died. Feels bad man.