Fire Emblem 6 - Race #2

[Jowy]

Chapter 13:

We're heading back to the mainland to fight against the new alliance.
First off, time to save Cecilia.



This was a hard map to figure out but easy to execute once I found the right route. We get two new drafted units this chapter. Miredy joins automatically on turn three, Percival needs a talking by our dancer Lalum.
You'd think we should cross the northern bridge since we need to recruit Percival who's waiting for us over there and won't move until we're in range. However it's 2 turns slower. I found a new route that will have Meredy rescue Lalum and fly her over to recruit Percival.
Just one problem. We need to lure him out, but neither Lalum or Meredy can survive an attack by Percival. So I'm sending Treck over there, all alone by necessity.



Zealot rescues Dieck, moves up, Lalum dances with him and Zealot moves again and drops off Dieck right into the eye of the storm.



Ray gets promoted to a Druid. He can now use staves (atm just the Heal one) and it'll come handy next turn.

 

Treck uses the dragon shield to increase his DEF by 2. This is absolutely necessary. Or I could promote him, but he'll get a ton of EXP soon so I should hold off on that if I can.
Originally I had other units accompany Treck, but all the enemies are cavalry so our guys can't ever get in range without being hit first. So it's just Treck now, with Chad shadowing him far away.



Zealot will have to tank hits from 6 enemies.

 

The big bad arrived. Dieck could take him on. We won't get a chance though, not yet.



Zealot survives with 6 HP. Ray will heal him back to almost full. Makes up for me missing those Elixirs.



Treck takes out the healer first. After that he'll only be healing himself with vulneraries. I only packed 3. There will be a few turns when Treck will idle instead of healing, and he could use the HP, but he does end up living through it all.



Shin and Zealot level up after killing stragglers. 



We're set up so Dieck will be killing all of the cavalry when they attack him.



Big bad re-captured Guinivere. Treck leveled up after counters.



Guinivere escapes again with the help of Meredy. She joins our army.
She will always move to a tile next to Roy.



Here are her stats. Very strong unit for a Lvl10 unpromoted, and she's a flier too! Our first one at that.
Let's see if she's worth that high draft pick.



Two archers left. We have many ways to deal with them. I gave the last hits to Shin and Lilina.
Really hoping that I can grab a Guiding Ring next chapter for Lilina so training her won't be for nothing.. I know there is one, but I don't know how accessible it will be.



We once again set up Dieck to deal with the tough enemies.
That's about as far as our other units could go anyway.



Treck just heals. He's boxed in, but should be freed by next turn.



Like this. There's a setup where you can force the javelin-wearers to melee attack Treck. But with that setup you'd have your way forward blocked, which we can't have.
Treck needs to get moving so he can lure in Percival before we seize the castle and end the chapter.



Marcus picked up Dieck and gets boosted by Lalum. 



This is how far he can move. Here I made a mistake in wasting 3 Durandal hits when it wasn't needed.



Dieck at least levels up from it. I guess the enemy Hero could have been dangerous. That's my excuse at least.



Treck gets one more step closer to the cap (20). He'll be a monster after the promotion stat boosts. Not sure when I'll pull the trigger. Next chapter is a desert map where cavalry are generally useless.



There's one Wyvern Rider that is especially dangerous, the farthest one. It has a Horseslayer weapon. That's why Dieck will be the only one in it's range.
Zealot had Roy, gave him to Marcus, who moved on a forest. It's to make the Wyvern Riders attack Zealot. Marcus is still in range to drop Roy next turn.



Rath gets a nice level up from killing the defenseless healer. 



Lalum moves and gets picked up by Meredy for their oversea journey.



Only the two javelin-wearers are still alive and chasing Treck. Chad can now move up and visit the village.

 

Uhh okay that's probably a reference to something. It's not a very strong item.



Dieck killed the healer, and can kill the boss next turn. Roy gets dropped. Has to tank two enemies, but he can take em.
For some reason this is one of the rare maps where it does NOT take an extra movement point to seize the gate. I wonder if there were others.



Chad looted the Body Ring. It gives +2 CON, which affects rescues and how heavy weapons you can use without penalties.
Probably giving it to one of our new recruits, Percival or Meredy.

 

Treck is now in range. Lalum gets dropped so she can move next turn. Both will have to survive.



Treck survives Percival's attack with 2 HP. A few cavalry units attack him too, but they deal 0 damage thanks to his high DEF.
Lalum gets hit by one attack, but dodges the second one.




Dieck one-shots the boss.

 

Shin gets his third level up this chapter. This time he actually shot down a flier, which is what he specializes in.



Lalum recruits Percival. Thank god she was wrong about that.



Strong stats, fast mover, A in lances and swords, C in axes.
Treck will be stronger once promoted, but Percival outclasses Zealot and Marcus by a wide margin.

 

Chapter finished in 7 turns. We get a Knight Crest for keeping all of Percival's NPC allies alive (three reds turned green when we recruited him).
Oh right, when we started the chapter, we sold a bunch of stuff, that's why we have more gold now.
I was hoping to visit the shops (north of the castle), but I don't think that's possible in 7 turns.
Fenn or El Grillo might be able to beat this chapter in 6. They get to use Lalum longer in the main group as they don't need to recruit Percival.



^ Spoilers for every Fire Emblem.

[Jowy]

Today I discovered that Fire Emblem games have fan-built randomizers. Time to replay them all!

[Fenn]

Chapter 10A:

Compared to what comes before and after it, Chapter 10 is about as simple as can be. Two clumps of enemies, one ballistician and the boss are really all you have to deal with, but as always doing it quickly is the issue: these narrow bridges can easily be blocked unless you can kill or lure away all of the enemies guarding them. Alan and Marcus will take point, cutting through the main body of the enemy and stopping for nothing but the boss; Shanna will follow closely, handing off Roy to the Paladins once the way is clear. The rest of the team will try to lighten the load and get some spare experience when they have a chance.


Marcus kicks things off by Hand Axing the top-right Fighter; Alan follows up by nixing this Halberd Fighter.


The rest of the squad follows behind. Lot wounds the top-left Fighter with his Hand Axe, giving him a HP/STR/SKL/DEF level and leaving his axe on one use left - that'll make the AI prefer to target him on enemy phase. Shanna finishes off the Fighter from afar and Sue chips the one just below. This formation allows only two enemies to attack Sue from melee range, freeing up a third to go after Lot. That means fewer enemies in the way next turn.


As expected, Lot draws the ire of a Mercenary.


Allen has to contend with a Killing Edge Merc, but he's got it covered (and can drink a Vulnerary a turn later if a crit happens).


Turn 2 opens with a couple of Fighters still in our way. Lott Hand Axes away the northern one, freeing a space for Saul to move up and heal Sue, who chips the south Fighter for Shanna to kill for a level. Whew! After that, Roy kills the Archer that Sue weakened on enemy phase with the Light Brand, and Merlinus bravely rides forth to distract the enemies with his life.

Now for the southern group. There's a Berserker there that we want to get rid of, guarded by an Archer. Marcus removes that obstruction:


(nice level, too)


...Allowing Allen to face off with the big cheese. Two solid hits does for him.

Turn 3

There's just one Mercenary in Marcus's way now, but dislodging him is a litle tricky. First, Astore kills the easterly one.


That allows Shanna to OHKO the other one with her Steel Lance. That puts her in range of the ballista, but thanks to the Angelic Robe she can survive a hit from full HP.


With that, there's practically a straight shot to the gate. Sue carries Roy to Marcus, who picks him up and moves forward with Allen.


Up north, the others are having some trouble with this clump of enemies. Ogier is particularly vulnerable, so he takes just two steps to the east so only one Merc can hit him and gets healed by Saul. Lot takes care of the Fighter nearby.


As it happens, both Mercenaries (and a southern Fighter) go after Lot, but he gives as good as he gets.

Turn 4:

Here's what the previous maneuvering was for. Marcus gives Roy to Allen, who charges forward and drops Roy:


Here, within seizing range. The rest of the squad occupies themselves with killing various enemies (Shanna in particular needs the XP) and visiting the village for a Swordreaver.

Turn 5:

After the others pick off some stragglers, earning Shanna, Lot and Astore a level each, we're ready to seize. One last Shaman blocks Roy from the gate, but he's no match for Marcus.


The boss isn't much better, even if his Nosferatu tome can be a pain. Allen needs a critical hit or hit+dodge+hit to succeed here.


Simple enough, really.


The next one will not be so easy.

Chapter 10A - 5/66 Turns

Stats:

[Fenn]

Chapter 11A:

Here we are. Where do I begin with this one? Chapter 11 puts 7 to shame in complexity - it may be the most involved chapter in the entire game. There's eight villages to visit, each of them with useful or valuable items (marked on the map below), three characters to recruit under time constraints - two of whom start out as enemies and need to be dodged around lest they kill one of your units or themselves. Even on a normal playthrough, going at anything less than a breakneck speed is not an option. Thankfully, Lalum joins just in time to help with that. Her specialty is giving another unit a second action, an ability which is extremely useful all of the time. We'll be making heavy use of Lalum from here on out.


Over on the northeast is a breakable wall that you can get to the gate through (Shanna can fly over the whole edifice as usual); it's possible to complete this chapter in four or five turns if you send Roy that way but Echidna, who I've drafted, can only be recruited starting from Turn 9 so that will be my seize date. I'll surely lose turns to the others, but I don't mind taking my time on a chapter with so much loot and experience to be had. There's even an arena for anybody who makes it over there!

As for the enemies, those circled in red will charge us immediately; the group circled in green is a little special. Walk into twice the attack range of any of its members, and the whole clump will activate. It will be important to lure this group away from the south so that they don't interfere with Roy's journey to the gate.

The bulk of the team will head south, headed up by Allen and Marcus as usual. Once they've made their way past the first group of villages, Allen and Roy will head for the gate while everyone else spreads out to cover the other objectives: recruiting Klein, visiting all of the villages and making sure Echidna starts in a fvourable position. Clarine is coming along to recruit Klein, mostly because of his Silver Bow and White Gem Among those who aren't taking part in this main group, Shanna will drop Lot on the forests east of the Vendor, where he'll draw in and crush the northeast Fighters and Archers; Shanna herself will visit the Armory and Vendor to restock. Merlinus will swing around to the south and visit the Orion's Bolt village; this will also draw away the Fighter down there, whose Halberd could pose a problem to Marcus when he tries to visit the Axereaver village to the east.


The sortie begins with Marcus picking up Roy and moving south, where after getting danced by Lalum he moves onward and drops Roy ahead with the Light Brand. Astore, Sue and Allen move forward while rescue-chaining Lalum along so she can keep up - five movement is not a lot! At the same time Shanna flies to the east with Lot in tow.

Turn 2

Roy did away with Fighter on enemy phase and wounded two other enemies; he stabs the Archer for a second level.


Sue Killer Bows the eastern Fighter down, and Astore gets at the other with some help from Lalum.


Marcus rescues Lalum and moves within range of the next clump of Fighters - here he can chip one of them on enemy phase.


Up north, Shanna drops Lot off and lures a Longbow Archer - his hit rate is terrible and he can't OHKO so there's not much to worry about there, but I want to keep him away from Lot.


On the enemy phase, Lot's long struggle begins. This Archer won't be easy to kill, and there's seven more of them waiting to hog that forest after him.

Turn 3

While the horde closes in on Lot, Shanna take the opportunity to poke the Longbowman. She's still got good odds to survive the next enemy phase, as none of these guys can hit the broad side of a barn.


Back at the ranch, the advance continues. Marcus drops Lalum out of danger, and Astore takes his space to kill the first Fighter. Allen defeats the second, Roy moves into position to counter the third, and the Archer is left to his own devices for now.


During the enemy phase Shanna rolls a 4% crit on this poor Fighter. That's actually bad because it opens her to another attack, but as it happens she dodges all four strikes anyway. Go Shanna!

Turn 4

After the Roy deals with the last Fighter over here, Marcus heads north and removes this Archer, allowing Allen to rescue Roy north and for Lalum to dance them without facing any danger. The southern Archer is handled by a Sue and Astore tag-team. In the north Shanna retires the local Shaman and prepares to counterkill a Steel Axe Fighter.

Turn 5

The northern enemies have been thinned out some, but there's more work to be done. Shanna Javelins the nearby Archer, Sue deals with the southwest Fighter (also luring the other Archer and Fighter in the south), Alan visits the northeast village, and Marcus doubles back for the southmost village.


Klein shows up on cue at the start of Enemy Turn 5. After he moves closer Clarine will be in range to recruit him.

Turn 6

She does so, and Klein hands off his White Gem to Saul. Klein's friends in green will give us an Orion's Bolt after the battle if they all survive, but we already have one for Sue so it's not worth restarting over if one of them dies.

Also in this shot: Shanna is going to visit the Armory just as soon as Saul can give her the White Gem to sell and Ogier is continuing his successful village-checking career.


Allen drops Roy safely out of range and prepares to face the boss with a humble Iron Sword; he doubles and can take a hit from this boss, so there's no need to shoot for the kill this turn.

Turn 7

Two more hits, and that's the end of Orlo. Now Allen has two turns free.


There's not much for anybody to do other than visit the last few villages and wait. Shanna goes a round in the arena in the meanwhile.

Turn 8

Tate shows up, but she's too far away for Shanna to recruit this turn so she goes to the armory instead.


Before Echidna spawns, Lalum dances Ogier to help Astore off this Brigand; if he was still alive he could draw Echidna away from Lalum which we don't want.


Anyway, here's Echidna! She spawns with three Fighters who immediately act, but I have my formation ordered so that nobody has to be attacked twice.

Turn 9

For her part, Echidna attacked one of the Fighters; after Astore and Sue clear a path Lalum is free to recruit her. Echidna is a rare female Hero with pretty good offensive stats - at least here on Normal - and strong weapon ranks to boot. Don't know if she'd be worth five turns by herself, but one more decent combat unit will make life easier going forward.


After Allen visits the last village and Shanna recruits Tate, Roy belatedly seizes the gate. We get additional prizes of a Hero Crest, Orion's Bolt and Elysian whip for fulfilling all of the optional objectives.


Chapter 11A - 9/75 Turns
Going slowly ironically may have made luck a bigger factor - with the superfast strategy you only need to fight a few contentious battles.

Stats:

[Jowy]

Hi lurkers! Fenn wanted to continue this so we shall give it a try once again. Not sure what's the status on El Grillo, maybe he'll pop up too.

Our runs are really starting to diverge. 10A for me was far from an "easy" chapter, while 11A was the polar opposite of an "involved" one with my beeline for the castle.

[Fenn]

The hard part of 10A was figuring out the overall strategy and working backwards to determine what needed to happen to make it possible. Once I had that it was fairly easy, but I can't say it didn't give me trouble at first.

This next chapter turned out pretty well.

Chapter 12:

Chapter 12 is tricky, but not so much as 11 was. Our party is divided into two routes; a long and winding corridor guarded by ranged enemies, and a much shorter side path. Roy's stuck on the long road, so it'll be the eastern squad's task to rush to the Warrior/Fighter group in the north and get rid of them before Roy comes through; accordingly, Allen, Shanna, Lalum and Echidna will take the east while Marcus carries Roy through the west. Everyone else will mostly do their own thing, killing enemies for experience or looting the chests on the map. Merlinus comes equipped with a set of Door and Chest Keys for this purpose.

There's also two Clerics with Sleep staves, in the north and south, to watch out for. It's possible to influence their AI to an extent by putting those last in deployment order or with low Resistance in their range, but they'll tend to target whoever they want anyway. Our most important units do have decent RES and the Clerics possess a measly 5 MAG, so they don't pose too great a danger.


Here we go. Roy chips at this Fighter with the Light Brand; Lot can handle the rest.


In the east, Allen starts us off by weakening this Fighter, taking him to A Lances and leaving this enemy low enough for Shanna to take the kill XP.


Initial actions give us this position. Marcus, carrying Roy, is waiting to counter the Knight just above him with an Iron Axe; Echidna's just been danced by Lalum, which will let her get a head start on the next foe:


Wielding a Hand Axe, Echidna's chipped this Knight and will finish the job on enemy phase; the Fighter up there will also attack and get taken down to 1HP, letting Shanna step in and gain enough EXP for a level.

Turn 2

Shanna advances to Level 13 off of this guy, and after being danced by Lalum she flies north and promotes - looking good! I had doubts about whether she could gain enough experience, but the last few chapters proved to be a good opportunity.


Back to the rest of the team. Lalum's help is still wanted, so Allen rescues her and Echidna drops her to the north, also getting in position to counterkill the Steel Bow Archer to the west. This Archer can OHKO Lalum, so we need him to be out of the way so she doesn't risk death. The other Archer in the corridor has a Longbow and isn't nearly as dangerous.

You can also see Marcus and Roy making their way north. Lot cleared out the Knight blocking the way, letting Marcus move as far as possible before dropping Roy.


Mr. Steel Bow falls on enemy phase as hoped for, though Echidna takes a solid hit. Her iffy defenses might be a problem later on in the run.

Turn 3

The west team's making good progress. Marcus and Roy move into positions safe from attack while Lot and Sue go to work on the enemies in the corridors. Merlinus has entered the treasure room as well and will loot the Flux and Aircalibur tomes over the next couple of turns.


This Cleric's blocking the way to the throne room, but thanks to her recent promotion Shanna can attack from melee range and guarantee a kill.


With nothing to block his path, Allen rescues Echidna and gets danced by Lalum...


Allowing him to drop her behind Shanna and move up with a Hand Axe in range of this clump of enemies, where he can hopefully counterkill the Fighters and cripple the Warrior there before they can get in Marcus' way.


He does eradicate the three Fighters that attacked, but the Warrior evades both of Allen's axes. He's also come into range of the second Sleep Cleric, though the odds are at least in his favour. Sue gets slept by the other Sleeper, but only after some productive enemy phase killing.

Turn 4

Now for that Warrior. Allen sets him up for Shanna to take down with her Slim Lance, putting her within an inch of A Lances.


Meanwhile, Echidna unlocks the door, Marcus rescues Roy along, and Lalum takes this rare moment when no dancing is needed to put on an extra layer. The extra HP may prove useful in letting her survive singular attacks.

Turn 5

We need to have Allen in position in front of the boss, and Roy in range of the throne by the end of this turn. First, Marcus gives Roy to Echidna.


Echidna takes Roy's Light Brand and drops him two tiles away from the throne so that Allen can take the Wyrmslayer; that's our only weapon that can really hurt the boss (nobody has S Swords for Durandal), so Allen needs to have it on him.


Next, Allen heals himself with a Vulnerary before getting danced by Lalum.


That lets him equip the Wyrmslayer right in front of Ein here. Allen won't attack this turn, but this gives you an idea of the numbers. If Allen doesn't succeed on enemy phase, Echidna can finish off the boss with the Light Brand - it always does 10 damage from afar, a very useful ability against a boss this tough.


Astore's been picking locks this whole time. He can't get all of the treasures, but these last two (Blue Gem and Elysian Whip) will both sell for five thousand gold so it's not a big deal.


On the boss's turn, Allen hits once, leaving Ein ripe for a Light Brand hit...except Echidna gets slept by the Cleric nearby who I forgot to deal with. Oops.


Fortunately Allen's next swing hits home and I don't have to restart. Astore loots the Blue Gem and Shanna skewers Ray (hey, free XP ), and this chapter is done!


Chapter 12 - 6/81 Turns
That ended up being much more reliable than I had first anticipated. Changing one's strategy can make all the difference, especially once you realize that no, you don't need Ray or his Nosferatu tome.

Stats:

(I forgot to update Lot's HP last chapter; 39 is the correct value)

[Fenn]

Kicking myself looking at El Grillo's Chapter 12 run - I think if I had employed the same trick for luring the Warrior to the south I could have managed a five-turn run! Too late now, I guess.

[El Grillo]

Hey guys, I'd be happy to continue once I get back home on Wednesday. I'm fairly certain I still have the saves.

[Jowy]

Oh no this Desert Chapter will suck so much.

[Fenn]

I'm looking forward to it myself...

Chapter 12x:

Chapter 12x is a short and simple one, even with the fog of war (not pictured - it won't have much impact), chests scattered around, and poison gout traps. The main objective is in the northeast, with a fairly clear path through the center of the map. The boss and his two flunkies will stay put, but almost every other enemy will be on the move from the first turn, so there's some scope for XP farming for the nonessential units we choose to deploy. With only seven free deployment slots, we are for the first time obliged to leave units on the bench. The mounted units are an obvious necessity, and Lot comes along to finally reach his promotion; Echidna will also gain a level off of the southeast enemies. Saul, Merlinus, Astore and Ogier will be sitting this one out for lack of usefulness, need for experience or possibility of gaining much.

Most of the treasure chests have nothing special, except for two in the northeast with a White and Red Gem; getting a hold of these would make a nice bonus if we can afford the detour.


First up: Lott Hand Axes the nearby Brigand and Echidna reveals a second with a Halberd. Marcus can handle that one.


Doing so uncovers the Shaman, but with help from Lalum Allen can get in range ans cleanly OHKO. Meanwhile Shanna picks up Roy.


Countering the Archer gives Lot a level. Just one more, and it'll be time for that promotion.

Turn 2

This Thief bites the dust after coming in range of Echidna.


Shanna gives Roy to Sue, than cantos ahead; that lets Sue, boosted by Lalum drop Roy in this little bottleneck so he can block those nasties to the west; and that allows Marcus and Allen to safely bring Lalum with them without any of the three needing to worry about Lalum or themselves being attacked.


Roy takes a hit from both of his assailants, but only the Archer lives to tell the tale of it. An Eclipse joker tries to give Allen a hard time, but we'll have the last laugh pretty soon.

Turn 3

This turn is a little simpler. Shanna starts off by hucking Javelins at this Brigand for the XP; Lalum will dance her afterwards.


Marcus picks up Roy and rides north, while Sue rescues Lalum.

Allen drops Lalum north, revealing the Eclipse Druid from before. Shanna can ORKO with her Iron Lance, and has to since this guy could break out Nosferatu on our weaker units. This leaves Lalum in range of the Archer but because of her Angelic Robe she has enough HP to survive a hit.


Alternatively, and this is what ends up happening, if the Myrmidon attacks and hits Shanna the Archer will switch focus to her, but Shanna too can survive a Steel Bow hit.

Turn 4

We're closing in on the throne now. Marcus hands off Roy to Shanna once more and kills the Archer that was harassing her, and gets danced by Lalum.


Then, Shanna drops Roy in range of the throne and puts herself in range of the Red Gem chest. Allen rescues Lalum and Marcus drops her before re-moving within range of the White Gem chest in that little corner. With Lalum where she is, Allen can go two rounds with the boss next turn, or if he wins in one round Shanna can get some extra XP before opening a chest.


Back to Lot for a moment. Level 16 is reached by Swordreavering this Myrmidon.


Sue's hanging around in the south to get some more XP off of a Thief-Archer pair, and Echidna's set to impress with her first level.

Turn 5

Guerrero here is very evasive but otherwise not a serious threat. We need three hits or a crit out of Allen (or two hits plus two Iron Sword hits) out of four attacks, plus two Iron Sword hits from Shanna if needed.


Round one with Guerrero gives two hits but no crits, but that's good enough for Allen to clean up with his Iron Sword. Before we go, Marcus and Shanna loot the White and Red Gems, Sue and Echidna get in some last kills...


...And Lot takes his well-earned promotion. Look at those promotion gains! He's been falling behind a little, but this ought to give him some uses.


Okay, now we're done.
Chapter 12x - 5/86 Turns

Stats: