What's the harm in a little reckless besieging? Let's Play FE: The Sacred Stones

Artur finishes the mage, gets a level and continues to be much less impressive than Lute. It’s still really early, but he’s looking like a 2nd stringer.



Natasha heals Ross, the rest of the group moves forward, forming a wall to face the coming attack of 2 more enemy units.



Surprisingly, this fighter misses even though he had a whopping 4% hit percentage.



Lute punishes this poor mage for challenging her.



Three misses and one dead mage, it looks like Murray’s Brigade may not live up to it’s lofty reputation. Or live at all.

Here’s me being stupid and accidently not attacking with Neimi in the Ballista. Joshua tries his best, but he will not catch up to the mob in time to effect this battle.



Colm will have to be pretty bad to not be better than Rennac and therefore my thief of choice, but levels like this are certainly welcome.



Artur takes a whack at the archer and leaves him with one HP.



And Lute finishes him.



Gilliam is not able to connect through the trees, but fortunately he is in no real danger from this fighter.

Healing and Franz connecting twice when I was only hoping for once, but hey, don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.



This is the enemy’s turn.



Neimi lucks into a critical and takes out one of these soldiers, netting herself one mediocre level up.



I send Franz on a mad rush to take out that other ballista, taking the opportunity to take a pot shot at a nearby mercenary. The rest of the mob advances as it can.



One mercenary has a disastrous encounter with Eirika, will the next one have any more luck?

Of course not. And Eirika gets yet another amazing level up. And with the ballista missing a shot at Eirika, the enemy’s turn ends.



Neimi shoots at the only target available. That ballista would have been more use if I hadn’t wasted a turn.



And Franz takes out the ballista, which would have been vital if I had brought Vanessa. Even without her, it does remove the closest thing to an impediment left.



Natasha heals Eirika for the experience, and the rest advance. Those stupid forests are slowing me down pretty good.




Franz, despite my intending to use him little on this map, manages to goad this fighter into suicide. And he gets an only kind of bad level and a weapon level.

The soldier tries his luck with Gilliam. Can these soldiers really be the famous Murray’s Brigade?



My turn is just healing and moving. This map is actually pretty sparse as far as enemies go.



And another round of moving. Natasha keeps chipping away trying to get some much needed experience.



It’s down to just these two archers and Murray himself. The one does get lucky and hit Eirika.



Colm gets some revenge for the shot this archer took at him, but is not quite strong enough to take him out.

Luckily, Neimi is still in that Ballista for the finish.



I give the other one to Lute and she gets another stellar level up. She’s pretty much a guaranteed party member from now on, though there was little question.



Weapon level for the erstwhile Natasha. Too bad more people weren’t hurt.



Moving on up.



Ross takes the first swipe at the legendary leader.

Whoo! Ross does almost no damage and gets to level 10. The level itself is no great shakes but now Ross gets to class change after the battle ends.



Artur, Lute and Gilliam all take stabs at Murray, though since Artur and Lute are using magic I guess they are not actually stabbing anybody. Unless they have magic knives, but I don’t think they do.



Natasha gets a sweet level up. I hate how long it takes to level up Clerics and the like. I understand it, but I usually get antsy and use promotion items on them.



Murray proves his valor by attacking the girl, who blasts him in the face with fire.



Artur gets to kill him, but gets yet another poor level up. There is still plenty of time, but Artur doesn’t have the advantage of me liking him going for him.

Artur also got a Knight's Crest, which will com in handy. The castle it is seized. So end the battle that will go down in history as Murray's Folly.



Enemy solders? In their castle? What a shock!



Eirika:
Are you all right, Orson? If you're here, my brother must be here as well, right?

Orson:
Yes... Prince Ephraim and I were broth captured by Grado forces and held here as prisoners. I just managed to escape my cell... A chance to escape-- It's what I had prayed for...

Eirika:
Orson... are you well? Your face is so pale. Grado's men, don't tell me they've--

Orson:
No... it's nothing. But Lord Ephraim... I cannot say whether he's still unharmed.

Eirika:
What!? Where is he? Where is my brother?

Orson:
If he lives still, he will be in one of the deeper cells, where I was held.



There is absolutely nothing fishy going on here. I trust Orson completely.



Next Time: A Trap?!

I think the main character of Fire Emblem 4 uses a spear.

I'd play it.

I read through this whole thread a couple days ago and today I went out and bought a copy of the game. Everybody's comments about this being the "easy" Fire Emblem contributed greatly! And despite that, I suck and have to restart chapters constantly.

Not sucking is no defense against having to restart.

Yeah but I even had to restart the prologue and that's just -

Oh. Right then.

I still don't entirely understand why you would promote units before level 20. It isn't right.

*YAAAWWWNNN* ok im awake im done with my hibernation and... only one chapter for how many months? WEAK

Most Outstanding And Remarkable LP!

So far I have really enjoyed all the fire emblem LPs, despite having never played them. In think I will have to start with this one, since it is the easy mode one, it seems.

It's the only one I've ever beaten, and I didn't even have to cheat with savestates on an emulator! I hope they make a few more that are this difficulty level... I love the series visually and story-wise but it's so damn hard.

Behold, I return.


Picking up where we left off (4 months ago) it’s time for Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones Chapter 8: It's a Trap



For those who don't remember or don't want to go back and read the previous Chapter, Eirika and crew have stormed the castle at Renvall, where her brother Ephraim may or may not have been held. They were met in the castle by the not yet extremely creepy Sir Orson.



Seth:
...Sir Orson. How long ago were you taken prisoner?

Orson:
Some two weeks past. Prince Ephraim and I were forced to surrender. We've been held captive here in this dungeon since that black day.

Seth:
Did you gain any news from your captors during that time?

Orson:
Unfortunately, no. Not a word... Our daily meal was brought to us by servants from the neighboring village. They were instructed not to speak to us, and we heard nothing of the war. Tell me, Seth. How fares Renais?

Seth:
...Renais has fallen. King Fado... The king is dead.

Orson:
Dead... My King... My apologies, Princess Eirika. I have served you poorly....

Eirika:
You're not to blame, Sir Orson. We must look to the future, not find fault in the past. The Grado army pursues me in hopes of acquiring my bracelet. My brother wears this bracelet's twin, and he is in danger, too.

Orson:
Bracelet? Ah, I remember... Prince Ephraim still wears the bracelet. And Grado is after them? If that's the case, Princess... Perhaps you should entrust the bracelets to someone else.

Eirika:
Perhaps, but...

Orson:
Give them to me or Seth. Let someone you trust guard them. If the empire desires you bracelet, you are in danger as long as you hold it. For your own safety, Your Highness, please. What say you? We must not allow the Sacred Stone of Renais to be taken.

Eirika:
Everything you say is true and sensible, yet...

Seth:
... Sir Orson. I am sorry for this, but please give me your weapons.

Eirika:
Seth?

Orson:
What are you talking about, Seth? Can't you see I'm unarmed? Do you think they allow prisoners weapons? What kind of injury have you taken that you suggest such foolishness?

Seth:
If I am mistaken, then I will give you all due apologies. However, there are questions I have that I cannot answer. Too many questions. Why did no enemy reinforcements come from the castle during our battle outside? Why would you escape your cell and yet leave Prince Ephraim in chains? How do you know of the tie between the bracelets and the Sacred Stone?

Orson:
Seth, there is some misunderstanding here. I...



If only Eirika had been alone. You, however, simply will not be deceived.

Eirika:
Orson! What is the--

Seth:
Orson. Why did you betray Renais?

Orson:
My fondest with will be granted... To spend the rest of my days in the embrace of my loving wife once more...

Eirika:
What are you saying?



Orson is a seriously creepy guy, as you’ll learn later.



Seth:
You're that monster's--

Tirado:
And you are General Seth of Renais, yes? I thought to catch a little bird in my net, and it seems instead I've snared a hawk.

Eirika:
Where is my brother?!

Tirado:
Ah, yes. Your brother. He's not here. The coward fled Lord Valter's pursuit... Somehow, he escaped the castle. And escaping under these conditions... Tch! Such stubbornness is quite annoying. It was my cunning that led us to turn this unfortunate blunder to our advantage. I spread the rumors myself. I led the villagers to believe he was our prisoner. What better trap with which to catch his sweet, devoted sister?

Eirika:
My brother escaped?

Tirado:
Yes, but your no-doubt emotional reunion will have to wait until the afterlife. Let's end this, shall we? First, to destroy the bridge and cut off your only avenue of escape...





Before the battle begins though, Ross has some business.



Pirate seemed to get more support so long ago, so Ross is taking to the high seas in search of booty and rum. So he call upon Zeus to strike him with his magical body building thunder bolt.




Now Ross is feeling more piratey.



And he gets some healthy stat boosts as well. Even at level 1 Ross is already pretty good, though his HP is not as high as it will get and could lead me into trouble because I think Ross is better than he is right now. By the end of the game, though, he should be a beast.

Map Time:



Here’s the map. I’m sure there is a better strategy than this, but I’m going to split my forces, sending half up to the room with the five Knights (Special Preview: this goes badly) and the rest go down around the other way where they will meet up with Ephraim and his crew at the end of turn 1. Other than the Knight room, and that mostly due to poor planning, this is a fairly easy map, especially with the addition of Ephraim. Franz gets left behind because he is getting a pretty big level advantage on everybody, so both Lute and Artur are coming. Chests on the map means Colm comes along and the rest of the usual crew: Gilliam, Ross, Joshua, round out the team.

Let’s get started.



Our newly minted Pirate is eager to get to plundering. He makes short work of a soldier.



And Neimi gets his partner. It’s a good start and the last action for turn 1.



Everybody else moves out. Gilliam will be leading to the left, taking Eirika and Lute. The rest are going north.



The Knight goes after the defenseless Neimi, but she is in no real danger.

Gilliam laughs at your swords.



Ross dodges an arrow, and the enemy turn ends.



Ephraim:
We have to goals here, men:
save Eirika and vanquish the enemy. Kyle. Forde. Are you ready?

Kyle:
Yes, Your Highness.

Forde:
As always.

Kyle:
Lord Ephraim, we should join forces with Princess Eirika first. We should be able to reach them by way of the eastern corridor.

Forde:
Come now, Kyle. That seems like a lot of trouble when we could just crush Grado between us.

Kyle:
“A lot of trouble? Forde, you're as insolent as you are careless! If anything were to happen to Princess Eirika, we Knights of Renais would...

Forde:
Fine, fine. I see where you stand. Calm down, before you boil over. Prince Ephraim will decide. How shall we proceed, Your Highness?

Kyle:
We await your command, Prince Ephraim.



Yay, Ephraim’s here. It’s party time.



Natasha fixes up Neimi.



Colm, using an Armorslayer I picked up a couple of chapters back, goes after the Knight. It goes just about as badly as possible. He misses with one of his two attacks and fails to dodge the Knights counter.



Neimi can barely scratch him, but the attack nets her enough experience to get a nice level up.



Being a polite young man, Artur raises his hand to ask permission to attack. The Knight did not survive, but he did leave a handy door key.



The Archer meets his demise at the magic hands of Lute.



The rest of the group moves onward. I did send Joshua the wrong way, so he is going to be a round behind the group going up. Forde is able to javelin the nearby soldier, ending my turn.



Gilliam can’t quite kill this knight on a counter attack, but he gets a mice level for his effort. He is looking really good, except for that speed. But there is a lot of time for that to be rectified, and it’s not like he’ll be doubling anyone. He is in danger of being doubled up himself, though.



An archer takes a wimpy shot at Kyle and that is the enemies’ turn.



Natasha Mends Colm, who is just about to cause me no end of trouble with that Armorslayer.



Lute finishes off the Knight and gets a not spectacular level, but it really doesn’t matter. She’s already pretty good.

Eirika and Gilliam advance, while Joshua goes the other way because I realized he was more needed on the other front.



Ephraim does what Ephraim does. This game really does beef up your guys, because you end up with quite a bit fewer units than the other games. Oh yeah, Ephraim also got a weapon level up.

Kyle should have killed this soldier, but he missed with his first attack. Luckily, I have Forde around to finish him off.



Forde does his job and nets a level up in the process.



The other group moves into position. They have the hard job of taking out the five knights around this chest.



I have Colm unequip the armorslayer and unlock the door. Having to restart about 5 times because I kept getting Colm killed helped teach my how to advance through this room. Remember, Colm is on the do not kill list.



Had I left the Armorslayer equipped, Colm would have killed this Knight, leaving him open for the next one to attack. The odds are decent that he would have dodged at least one of the attacks, but it was not a risk worth taking. Plus, more than 2 might have been close enough to attack him.



Neimi takes down this shaman, ending the enemy turn.



Reunited and it feels so good!

Ephraim:
Well, of course I am. After we escaped Renvall, I thought I'd strike a blow against the emperor himself. When I heard that you'd been waylaid by the enemy, however, I turned back to find you. Looks like my timing was impeccable.

Eirika:
I'm so sorry. The irony is that I was trying to rescue you. All I did was interfere with your plans...

Ephraim:
What are you talking about? You came to help me, didn't you?



Now that the wonder twins are together again, on with the battle:




Artur takes out the first Knight with no trouble.



Ross, who I am starting to overestimate due to his class change (I did intend to leave him dead when he died up here but once he fell, the rest of team started to die quickly. Colm was usually the next to go) softens up another knight.



I heal Colm, but I do not advance anyone else. I really should have chosen a better team to take this spot. Not sending Gilliam was the real mistake.



I move the rest cautiously forward. Actually, less caution and more indecision. I have way too many units on this side with too few enemies. It is a fairly sparse map.



Colm takes another spear stab. Crazily, he is one of my more sturdy units here.



Ross finishes off the one he already hit once. Then he gets a crappy level up.



My turn. Natasha heals Colm again and Gilliam moves closer to the newly arrived cavaliers.

I really hoped Colm would dodge that counter attack. The last two times they hit him with around a 50% chance, I thought I might get lucky even though this one was a 67%. Fortunately, I have options to protect him.



Artur, Neimi and Ross form a screen for Colm. Ross uses a vulnerary. Hopefully none of these guys needs to take two hits.



Ephraim couldn’t quite finish this mage, but that is just as well. He doesn’t really need the experience right now.



Lute and Eirika move to help Gilliam while Kyle finishes the mage. Which ends my turn.



The first Knight goes after Artur and lands a hit. Artur takes him down, which unfortunately opens him up to be attacked by the other one too.



WHOO, that was close. Better lucky than good, better lucky than good. Artur finishes that one, too.



The cavaliers arrive and take a pitiful swipe at Gilliam. Gilliam couldn’t finish him off, though.



Javelins. I hate javelins. And Eirika has little enough HP that a few hits could doom her.



Yet again, Colm gets healed.



Colm gets an Angelic Robe out of the chest. That is most likely destined for Eirika. Also, Joshua finally catches up.



Gilliam takes a stab at the nearest cavalier.



Eirika attacks a cavalier, with predictable results.



Lute puts the hurt on one as well.



Kyle and Ephraim advance, and Forde moves backwards for a reason that I do not remember but I’m sure were tactically sound. On the other side, a general advance.



The mercenary attacks Ephraim, who dishes out more than he takes but does not kill the man.

The cavalier does not survive a second blast from the inimitable prodigy.



Enemies with longer range than my guys take a couple of shots at me. Neimi suffers no real harm, but Eirika is desperately close to death. This will keep happening until she gets some more HP.



Eirika retreats and uses a vulnerary. Gilliam also retreats, leaving Lute to finish the last of the cavalry.



Lute does her job. Down he goes.



Neimi takes out that pesky longbow man.



Joshua, Ross, et al advance with Natasha healing the battered Artur.



Ephraim finishes the mercenary and Forde and Kyle advance, ending my turn.



Kyle and a mercenary exchange blows. The mercenary survives, but Kyle gets a high-quality level up.



Eirika continues to heal herself while she, Gilliam and Lute try to catch up to Ephraim.



Again, Kyle and the mercenary exchange blows. Again neither is defeated.



Ross makes an attempt to knock this thief around, but misses the slippery bastard.



Not much else going on on this side; just the usual moving and healing.



That dang mercenary finally gets what’s coming to him. And that’s the enemies turn.



Neimi deals with this mage before he can become a problem.



Ross leaves the thief and takes on the Knight, but not quite killing him.

Artur gets a critical hit on this guy and gets a thoroughly terrible level up.



Colm liked Artur’s crappy level up so much he thought he should get one of his own.



Ephraim and Kyle use Elixir’s, because they do not have any vulneraries and the rest of the crew advances.



The Knight meets his end at Artur’s magical hands, but it is also the last use of his Lightning tome. This could be bad news.



Luckily, the last guys aim is bad. Artur lives to possibly fight another day.



The other group of foes try to hit Forde, but he’s too squirrelly.



These to thieves could keep this up all day unless I get someone else over there to finish the little jerk off.



Neimi takes out another one. The enemies are getting even more sparse.



Joshua does his magical disappearing trick that results in the death of his foe. Also:



Yet another poor level up. This has not been a good battle for level ups. Also Natasha heals Artur.



Ephraim takes out the shaman and breaks the streak of bad level ups in a big way.



Kyle takes out a defenseless archer. Yay Kyle!



Forde gives this Knight plenty of warning that he is about to die, but he is unable flee.



That is the enemy turn; a missed shot at Ross and that damn thief again stealing that lock pick.



Ross gets his revenge. It is now down to the thief and the boss. Clean-up time.

I have Colm steal the lock pick back yet again and Neimi kills the thief, netting her a



And it’s back to the bad ones. At this rate the end game will just be Eirika, Ephraim and Lute. Not that I’m wholly against that.



And maybe Natasha. She gets a spectacular level up after healing Colm. Could have used some magic, but I’ll take everything else.

With all of the enemies downed, I simply try to move everybody into position to take out the boss and seize the throne.



Between Forde and Joshua this weakened wall is takes down, opening it up for Colm to loot and my powerful units to get at the boss.



I check Eirika’s supply, but there are no more tomes for Artur. I do have him pick up a door key to speed up Colm’s looting. Then more moving and end turn.



Artur opens the door and Natasha heals Ephraim, otherwise it is a turn of simply moving.



Again healing and this time a Silver Sword from a chest. Not pictured: much more positioning.



And the last chest is looted, time to gang up on the poor boss.



Lute gets the first shot, though it is only for at most 2 damage. But it is possibly 2 free points of damage since he can’t counter-attack. Also, I think I should make a dick joke about Tirado’s “special brand of power.”



Lute only manages to hit once, but she does get a level up. A level up with even more magic at that.



Ephraim has a decent shot at killing the guy, but he misses and manages to get hit by Tirado’s 39% chance. Great job, captain. Also, the boss does enough damage that one more hit would finish him. I am in a bad way.



Ross takes a shot. He can’t do much damage, but is he had connected then Eirika could kill him with one hit. Unfortunately, he misses. At least the boss missed as well.



Eirika gets her shot at the boss. It is a risky move, if the boss hits her it’s game over. If she hits twice or gets a critical then I win. I figure it is worth the risk. Plus, I’m playing on an emulator so I will not have to restart the whole battle is this fails. My first attack lands, now it up to whether Tirado misses or not.



And Eirika wins. Whew! That really isn’t a hard map, but I forgot Colm had my armorslayer and did not want to wait for him to get back from the treasure room. It all worked out in the end.



Tirado thinks that a fate worse than death awaits us at the hands of Valter, but what does he know, he’s dead.

And Eirika gets another swell level up. This is ridiculous.



Natasha uses the short break before I can seize the throne to heal some people up. Then Eirika seizes the throne. Battle over.



But tell me, Prince, do you know of Orson's treachery against you and all of Renais?

Ephraim:
Yes, though I learned of it all too late, after we'd been trapped at Renvall. I still find it difficult to believe that after all his years of service to Renais... I am morally responsible for his plight.

Eirika:
Ephraim...

Myrrh:
...Ephraim.

Ephraim:
What is it, Myrrh?



Her hair is indigo... Where did...



There is much more story to come, but I’ll save that for the in-between chapter update. Next time: lots and lots of story, plus I review the troops.

It's good to see this back, but if I may offer a criticism, there are JPEG artifacts visible on the stitched-together multi-screenshots. Since the singles are still PNG, it should be possible to export the combined ones in a lossless format as well.

Yay. I'm still slowly trucking through my hard-mode run of Sacred Stones. I'm afraid to pick it back up, I'm stuck on Chapter 14 Ephriam's Mode, and it's an absolute nightmare to try to get Rennac without someone becoming berserked and taking out one of my characters.

Have I mentioned how much I loathe berserk? I do.

It is the worst.

There's only so much combat exp to go around, for one, especially on Hard where exp is reduced. On average, it is extremely rare for most unit to reach a stat cap in the GBA games, with some small exceptions. Promotion also adds increases to Move, Con and weapon rank, as well as new weapons for a lot of classes, so there are immediate benefits in doing so. You're not going to get a Tier 1 staff user (like Moulder) to L20 with staff exp, for example, it is very inefficient and doesn't necessarily make them better attackers than a 10/1 staff unit when they promote due to random stat gains.

I used to think it was inefficient not to promote a unit before L20, after playing the games in various different ways I realise that is often inefficient to delay promotion for so long with most units, especially when they want or even need it much sooner.

Actually, there is one that is just as bad. The threat hasn't shown itself yet in this thread (I think), so I won't spoiler it but it has something to do with Castlevania.

EDIT: Also, there are some Tips for playing Fire Emblem
*Thieves have no use attacking Knights. Worst case scenario, they end up dead
*Always use the Arena. No exceptions.
*Even if the Lord has a weapon that is super effective against an Armored, or Horse mounted unit, It is not necessary that they kill said armored or Horse mounted unit.

Well, I'm mostly a perfectionist and it's not like I've run into any problems so far with unpremoted units, besides BERSERK AAAAAAAAUGH.

And it's not inefficient at all. Again, I'm playing hard and I had no trouble using Moulder as a healer to level 20. And now he's one of my strongest units (although I can't overuse him).

We're pretty good at Fire Emblem around here, KDavis, but thanks for the tips. Unless you're referring to Rascally Badger's playing, somehow (although I think he's doing a fine job so I'm not sure why you would say that).