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

Yes, but it's still a game with multiple characters capable of doing similar things are competing for limited slots as well as mutually exclusive upgrade paths. It is wholly appropriate that we argue amongst ourselves about what is best. And in this case I once again advocate for General Amelia because this game has five horsemen already.

Psh, five of those horsemen don't have cute ponytails. Three of them are kinda average (one of them being Forde), one of them is not very good despite being a complete badass, and the other is Seth.

...but... no ponytails! None at all! And no, shut up! Forde's ponytail does not count! >

Yeah, I don't mind powerleveling. That's just how I play. Lute is much better in general FE terms. And maybe I just like dark magic because Canas is cool! Hrmph!

I picked up FE8 again, and was able to beat Chapter 6 on hard mode, finally. I feel so terrible right now.

Dark magic isn't that good in this game, except for the final secret character, but that's not the point. You don't need to use black magic, but you do need black magic users. This is because of Summoners.

Well, I pull it off with Vanessa and using Seth, even in Hard Mode. That one damn Troubadour always ends up stalking Seth and riding next to him until something kills her.

Actually, Summoners are pretty pathetic.

Nice gimmick though.

I've never used summoners, and from what I've heard they're not all that useful.

Well, actually, I did promote Knoll into one during Creature Campaign, and from initial impressions it didn't really give a great impression.

The only good one is a secret character.

Summoners are amazing because having access to expendable units opens up tons of new strategies.

This. At the very least, it gives you the perfect unit(s) to lure enemies in with, as you won't give a damn whether or not a phantom survives.

Not to mention what they basically have is a constant, infinite source of XP for themselves.

If you guys keep arguing about stats then I'll just use Garcia, Dozla, Deussel and Knoll. That's right, no Amelia or Lute or Ross or L'Arachel.
This is an empty threat. It is impossible to play the game without L'Arachel. And illegal.

Yeah.

At one expendable unit a turn.

Seriously, Zerg Rushes don't work unless you have a lot of Zergs.

And really, one of the main themes of Fire Emblem in my opinion is Quality over Quantity. After all, you're always commanding significantly smaller armies against much larger ones with the goal of not getting anyone killed.

Having expendable units just seems... odd.

I'd have no problem with you using bad characters but leave any trainees behind and you're a dead man.

My gimmick for this LP is death threats!

I think I already made it clear that I wanted to use Duessel and to have him support Amelia, therefore I consider this plan a compromise. although I did spoiler his name earlier so... whoops?

The only one of those I've actually ever had difficulty using is Garcia, and only because he likes getting stat screwed for me.

Dozla and Duessel both hit pretty hard but Dozla is fond of dying and Duessel is fond of being too slow to do anything.

Knoll is actually very capable despite what people say, if you can deal with never ever letting him get poked with a sharp stick.

But they are all boring. That was the threat, to use characters no one in their right mind likes. And Dozla. But Dozla is only interesting because L'Arachel.

Garcia's actually pretty cool too.

Zerg rushes? You have no imagination. Bait is the first thing that should come to mind. Because they have 1 HP and no defense, enemies will always prefer to attack a Phantom. Place one in range and you can draw out an entrenched enemy you can't safely approach. This game in particular likes to place enemies in locations such that you can't attack them until after they have moved to attack you. Alternatively, when you're facing an overpowering enemy with superior mobility, you can, with careful positioning (considering the mobility of the other enemies you can handle), completely negate its threat until you are able to bring to bear sufficient power to defeat it. And speaking of completely negating enemies, there's no more perfect lightning rod for long-range magic; their ability to fly makes this tactic more effective than just sticking your best tank there, because you can often get them there sooner. And if you want to use them for just plain fighting, a summoner's movement plus the phantom's movement gives you as much range as anything. Fighting with phantoms subjects your enemy to the horror of knowing that every Phantom they defeat only makes you more able to outmaneuver them. Frankly, sometimes the biggest drawback to Phantoms is that they can, on occasion, live through the enemy's turn.

Fire Emblem is known for having highly predictable AI, and Summoners let you play that AI like a fiddle. The drawback in-game is that because Summoners don't need to fight, they can't fight; the drawback out-of-game is that exposing the simplicity of enemy behavior might spoil some the illusion.

I don't think anyone who has played more than a few rounds will have any illusions. The resources are stacked so much in the opponent's favor that exploiting the AI's patterns is the only way to win.

And to think I was trying to hack that one marsh mission into a fifty pegasus/falco knight zerg rush, mostly on Aggressive mindset because it was more realistic.

Yes, I was crazy.

lol hardore fire emblem

Do other people seriously hate this game because it has too many great characters?

The problem people have with this game was how easy it is.

And, in my case, the general lack of double endings.

Hey, this might make the game actually interesting tactically. I support it with gusto!

I find the game much more challenging if you don't tower abuse. Honor the old folks that had to walk five miles both ways to the arena for their experience!

I'll admit that I never thought about using them as lures.

Mainly because, well, by the time I actually have a Summoner the need for lures is pretty much entirely gone. I'm sure it'll come up at some points, but in general the old "throw your best melee units at the enemy army and back them up with long range units" still works best.

Id take fun over frustration any day.

No, I mean the game is significantly easier (shorter too) than FE7. To the Fire Emblem fanbase (the ones who hate this game in other words), that was kind of a big problem.

Okay then Tower of Valni with the least interesting team I can muster. Do people like Cormag? He is the only character I missed my first time through and I never noticed. Did you know on Eirika's route it is quite easy to beat the mission where Cormag joins before Cormag shows up.

The only way to play the game is to go straight through without doing any extra fights, like all the other Fire Emblem games make you, then at the end do the Tower and Ruins for fun and trying out the characters