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

So....

How do you even pronounce L'Arachel's name?

I say Le A-ra-kel.

Well it's a French name, so I'm thinking la-ra-shell (or /la-ra-ʃel/).

Also: You will pair Lute with Artur and you will like it mister. Also also, yay for Lute! Best character in the entire series? Maybe not, but she sure as heck is one of my all-time favourites.

Although I rarely use Artur, this runthrough I think I may. I mean, he has as much magic and skill as his speed, and this can only mean good things.

I pronounce L'Arachel "L-Ayruh-Kel", but I'm probably really wrong. I sometimes use her if my Moulder has been particularly lackluster, or I just feel like having two characters who primarily heal.

And in my own opinion, Lute can be a good mageknight, just because of the con and movement boost. It's all up to the build of your current Lute. If she has speed to spare, Sage should be fine.

I say it like "L-Arch-El". I use Arthur and Lute in my playthroughs.

Yeah it's been a while, but it turns out two updates a week was optimistic. I'll just try to stick to the regular one a week from now on. Quick Recap:



Let’s Play Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones



I would say that this is the first battle that doesn’t feel like a partial tutorial. All of the games battle elements have been introduced and now it leaves you to fend for yourself. Not that this battle is very difficult. IT does net you another 2 characters, this time both great. But first story stuff.



Joshua:
Something amiss, Sister? You look flustered.

Natasha:
Ahhh! P-pardon me.

Joshua:
No, pardon me1 I never meant to startle you. May I offer my apologies....

Natasha:
No, it's not necessary... It was my fault. Excuse me, I must be going... Good day to you.

Joshua:
...And there she goes. Not my lucky day... She was quite the beauty, too. Ah, such is life. I think I've time still to visit the arena, though.

Elsewhere in town



Saar:
Yes, sir!

Glen:
One more thing... A traitor to the empire has fled Castle Grado. We've received reports she is hiding somewhere here in Serafew. I don't care if you have to tear this town apart. Find the turncoat.

Saar:
Yes, sir, General Glen! If she resists, do we have permission to execute her?

Glen:
...Yes. Permission granted.

Saar:
Understood! Grado's will be done. The Grado Empire will repay the debt of betrayal with blood!

Glen:
...His Majesty relies upon you, Captain. Be sure his trust is not misplaced. That is all.

Saar:
Yes, sir!



Glen:
No...Pay no mind to me. Come, Cormag. Let's go. From here, we ride northeast, back to the fort.

Cormag:
Very well.

No walls divided our borders. No soldiers stood guard in high towers. The border town... It was to me a symbol of the trust between Grado and Renais.

Seth:
...And now, it is firmly under the thumb of Grado's emperor.

Eirika:
The peace I remember in this city... It seems like something from another time. It seems lost now... Forever.

Seth:
...The city doesn't seem to be very heavily patrolled. They must feel it's not worth guarding with Castle Renais under their control. We must try to not draw attention to ourselves. The west gate is undermanned....



Have you seen a young girl with indigo hair?

Eirika:
Indigo hair? No...Sorry.

Saleh:
Hmmm... Thank you. Sorry to intrude.

Eirika:
There was something very odd about that man, wouldn't you say?

Seth:
He did seem unusual. He didn't strike me as a Grado spy, but...

Soldiers:
Catch her! Don't let her escape! That way! She went that way!

Hey look the first of many cameos in this chapter by a later joining recruit.



Come quietly, and you may have the chance to explain yourself before His Majesty.

Natasha:
Wait, please. You must listen to me!

Soldier:
Take her.

Natasha:
No, you must believe me! The emperor is not himself. You MUST be able to see that!

Soldier:
Impugn the emperor at your peril! We've been ordered to execute you if you offer any resistance. But your words condemn you!

Eirika:
That cleric is a traitor to the throne of Grado? What madness is this?



Natasha:
You're from Renais...Oh! I have something I must tell you. It's about Grado--

Eirika:
Wait--Grado soldiers are coming this way. We'll have to talk later. Now we must fight!



We have to take Eirika, obviously, and Natasha for this battle. It shows the team I took last time, but I’m making some changes. Seth is done for quite a while if not for the rest of the game. Better than Marcus he may be, but he is still an experience hog who will never be more than average. Also, I’m dropping Artur for this battle. I do not need two magic units, and I’m using Lute. Moulder isn’t needed with Natasha forced into the party so he’s going to the bench. That opens up three spots. As I already said, one is going to Lute. The other two are going to Colm and Neimi. I want to get some levels on Colm and Neimi is a bit a favorite.



So here’s the map for this chapter. My plan is to send Franz alone to the left and take care of the guys outside the wall. Neimi and Gilliam will take the left side of the town and everyone else will go right. Those other three can take care of themselves and by bunching up the others I can keep any one of them from being squished.

Get back to the staging area now!

Joshua:
C'mon, why don't we both hit the arena? It'll be good training, If you're going to risk your life anyway, you may as well try to earn some gold.

Soldier:
I'm reporting you to the captain! You'll be lucky if he just docks your pay! Don't forget--You can be replaced in an eyeblink, you filthy sellsword!

Joshua:
Don't worry, little man. I won't forget. Work's work, but I don't like fighting women... Now then, what's the rest of the day got in store for me? ...Tails huh? That's nothing but bad luck and more bad luck...



I wonder which one she needs to speak to?



Natasha has all around better growths than Moulder, but it doesn’t make a huge difference which one you use as your primary healer for the first half of the game. I use Natasha because she is a girl and slightly less boring than Moulder.



I advance my troops as I outlined above. Franz gets hit javelin equipped to deal the archer coming down. Vanessa will visit the house near the bottom and I think Gilliam and Franz are the only ones facing combat on the enemies next turn.



The soldiers charge from wherever they are on the map, while most of the rest of the units stay put until I move into their attack range. Unrelatedly I was always disappointed that none of the GBA games give you one of these soldiers as a playable unit. The closest you get is Amelia, but she really isn’t the same thing. I was so glad to get Nephenee in Path of Radiance and even more happy when it turned out she was awesome This one attacked Franz and got killed in the face as punishment.

A fighter tries his luck with Gilliam and is fortunate that Gilliam can’t double him.



This archer proves me right in equipping Franz’s Javelin.



As does the next one. Franz nets a pretty sweet level to boot. Strength and defense are always welcome.

And so ends the enemy turn



A pair of bandits show up at the end of turn one over near where I sent the bulk of my forces.



Neimi takes out the fighter that Gilliam softened up and gets a dang great level. Strength can be worrisome with her, so every point is welcome. And I realize how much I use Gilliam to help out weaker units, but I still do not like him very much. He’s great now but when I choose my path, and get access to more cavaliers, he invariably falls out of the rotation. But with the level ups he’s gotten so far I might just keep using him.



Here he is taking out one of those archers Franz weaken before.

And Franz gets the other one. I don’t really like using strong units to take down defensless enemies, but I that was the only option I gave myself.



Vanessa visit’s the house and we see a cameo of a character yet to join. Here is Tethys, who claims to be a dancer, but really appears to be a prostitute. And an unchoosy one at that.



Luckily she is a generous prostitute dancer and hands us a Dracoshield, which I will hold on to for a little too long before giving to character that will probably not really need it.



Ross and Colm take out a soldier together and Colm saddens me with a level up. I need some good levels for him, because I will be using him. I need a thief. Because I can’t take the Bandits down from where I am, I advance everyone else even with Ross to try to keep the enemies from ganging up on him.



A soldier connects with Colm and Colm doubles him up in return, though he can’t quite kill him.

The first bandit takes a healthy chunk of Ross’s HP, but since there is only one avenue to attack him he’s fine.



Colm dodges the other bandits swipe, which is good because if it had connected it would have killed him. Better lucky than good I always say.

My next turn starts, and I advance Gilliam and Neimi and have Franz use a vulnerary. No action on the leftern front.



Despite my intentions to not use Eirika too much, I have her kill this guy who is blocking my way. She beats him using a combination pf levitation and imperceptible dodging.



Ross gets the soldier and a good level up. He’s got 7 strength and he is not really level 1 yet! Yeah Ross is going to be pretty good. Even his weakfish (this was supposed to be weak-ish, but I mistyped it weakfish and apparently that’s a thing so I’m leaving it.) speed will not be problem.



Lute gets the other bandit and a real good level up. I often have Lute and Ross support each other because aside from being quite humorous they make an unbeatable team.

After a mending from Natasha, and I’m really kicking myself for not stealing Moulder’s healing rod for her, I have enough confidence in Colm to send him after this Archer. Too bad he can’t quite kill him. Then I get a really bad idea



As I said, better lucky than good. If Vanessa had missed, and with a 74% chance a hit was far from guaranteed, she would surely have died. But she didn’t, so all is well.

Enemy Turn



The 2 nearby fighters try Colm, but just end up short a significant amount of HP.



Franz’s avoids a fighter’s assault.



As does Gilliam. I told these two could handle themselves.

My turn.



Ross kills one of the fighters that Colm weakened. Then he got healed by Natasha.



This guy gives me a armor slayer, desiring only that we use it to bring stabbity death to the enemy’s leader. I am more than happy to oblige.



Down goes another fighter. I’ve really been leaning on Franz in these early chapters because I love cavaliers and he’s the only one. I was really surprised that there is no love for him. He is almost always my MVP for the early chapters.



Neimi eliminates a soldier. I love snipers, mostly because the crit boost, but I sort of hate archers. Every other unit can reliably damage enemies on the enemies turn, where an archer generally only gets to attack. Neimi is the only character I’m likely to have change class early instead of at level 20.




Just to prove how bad I am at this game I push my luck by trying a lower percentage shot and she connects again. Now for a delicate maneuver.



I take Vanessa’s Javelin away, because I’ve moved her into Joshua’s range and he is going to attack. The slim lance does not penalize her speed so there is no chance she gets doubled. Now I have to hope that Joshua does not get a critical. There are better ways to do this, but I was not paying close enough attention to Joshua’s position. Also Vanessa acts a the caravan in this game, which I would say is a good change, even if it does not make a lot of sense.

Sure enough, Joshua smacks her, but luckily he did not get a critical with the damn Killing Edge they give him.



Joshua:
Yeah, Grado's paying the bill. They want you dead, you know? But don't feel bad. It's not personal.

Natasha:
Wait, please... It doesn’t matter what happens to me, but you must hear my words. The emperor of Grado is changed. He is not the man he once was. The other nations must be warned before he extinguishes all light from out lands.

Joshua:
Hey, no offense, but I'm just a mercenary. I don't care about Grado or its emperor. Everything you say may be true, or it may be lies. I don't care either way.

Natasha:
But that's...

Joshua:
Even so...killing a beautiful lady like you would leave a bad taste in my mouth. Tell me, do you like to gamble?

Natasha:
What?!

Joshua:
Gambling's what I live for. Even when I lose, I never want to stop. Let's have us a little wager. If you win, I'll believe you. Heads or tails, you call it.

Natasha:
You can't... This is no time for games...

Joshua:
Would you rather I get on with the job I was hired for?

Natasha:
...... Um, heads... No! Tails!

Joshua:
All right. So I'm heads, and you're tails. Here we go. ... ... ...

Natasha:
...... Which...Which is it?

Joshua:
What do you know?! It's tails. You win. Figures. I haven't won anything all day. Well, Lady Luck has spoken. Guess I'm on your side now.

Natasha:
Are you serious?

Joshua:
Yeah. Sure, I might cheat, but I never worm out of a bet. It's a rule of mine.

Natasha:
Oh, thank heaven! Thank you, blessed light, for your protection!

Joshua:
I got nothing against heaven, but I’m right here if you want someone to thank... No? Well , get behind me then. I've got to take care of these fools.

Yes, Joshua. My 2nd favorite character in this game. He is not one that I will ask for input on whether or how to use him. He will be in the party and he will not be an assassin, though I do not think anyone would suggest that.



Joshua will max speed and skill. There is really no question about that. And his mediocre strength stat is offset by is fairly high starting point. With just a little luck Joshua will kill his way across any battle field. Also, and this is a spoiler, I love the fact that he is the prince of Jehanna and that it is not really uncovered until much later. Are large portion of the army you gather are the princes and princesses of the continent, that fact that one of them is an optional recruit that hides in the background is pretty neat.




Neimi snipes a guy over the wall.



Gilliam gets a secret book and Franz hides in the trees again. Everybody else advances. In any other Fire Emblem game the presence of the arena would mean it was time for some risky leveling but in Sacred Stones, the other optional battles are much less risky, though less lucrative.



The only action on the enemies turn is Franz v Mercenary. I would say Franz got the better of the exchange, though he did get hit.

My turn



That’s a few really good level ups for Franz in a row. At this point he’s looking solid. I guess we’ll see when his competition joins.



Lute attacks the bandits that appeared just before this turn. Natasha heals Vanessa before she attacks the weakened bandit.



Vanessa finishes the guy off and gets a



She’s only level 4 but Vanessa is really close to riding the bench.



I love Myrmidons. I do need to get that Killing Edge off of him before I waste it.

A soldier attacks Colm, who continues to be dodgy.



And the other meets a quick end to Joshua’s blade.



Neimi gets back into the action killing the last soldier.



Healing and advancing and Franz visit’s the last house.



Yet another cameo by a future recruit. And this time it’s the best recruit. Other than seeing Amelia, I also get a torch.

Boo! Colm you have to do better than that.



A pretty solid level up for Ross with the speed and defense. He’s well on his way to being broken.



New arrival Bandits attack Franz and Lute and suffer for it. Looks like Lute is in trouble now.



One bandit down thanks to the combined efforts of Neimi and Ross and Ross gets yet another level up.



Eh, they can’t all be winners.

Lute takes care of the other one, leaving just the boss to deal with.



Ok, I guess I’ll use Gilliam. He’s up there with Eirika on the ridiculous list now. I could just let this knight on knight action play it self out, I’m sure I would win, but that’s no fun.



Franz is one of the few characters I have that can actually damage him, and he doubles up. But I’ve used him enough this battle, so someone needs a turn.



No Damage, why would I do that? Oh yeah, because



I guess it wasn’t worth it. That is one poor level up.

Lute takes him down and gets bad level up. Not a happy ending for this battle.



Natasha:
Yes... My name is Natasha. I was a servant of the people at Grado's Imperial Temple.

Eirika:
Then why the trouble with the soldiers? Would you tell us your story?

Natasha:
Of course... A few days past, my mentor was arrested without warning. They executed him. They said he as a traitor... But those were false accusations. The emperor had him killed--a holy man!--to keep him silent.

Seth:
Keep him silent?

Natasha:
Yes. My mentor told me with his final breath. The emperor plans to destroy the Sacred Stones.

Eirika:
The Sacred Stones? Destroy them?

Natasha:
As you must know, the Sacred Stones drove back the power of evil long ago. Even now, each of our nations is home to one of these legendary treasures. There's one in my homeland, Grado, and one in your Renais...

Eirika:
Yes, the Sacred Stone of Renais is still housed in our royal temple.

Natasha:
The emperor plans to destroy the five stones, one by one...

Seth:
Why would he do such a thing? Legend says the Sacred Stones are even now all that keep evil at bay!

Natasha:
I cannot begin to guess his motives... You must know, our emperor was a gentle man. But one day, he changed. Utterly. Before my mentor died, he said the keepers of the Sacred Stones must be warned. I tried to slip across the border, but the soldiers spotted me...

Eirika:
Is that what happened... What do you think, Seth?

Seth:
I think we can trust no one from Grado. Not in these times. Not without proof. However, if what she says is true, we cannot ignore the danger we face. Destroying the Sacred Stones... We cannot allow that to happen.

Eirika:
I agree. If only we knew if there were some reason for the emperor's actions. I must tell you, her story chills me to the bone. I pray it is false...


Destroy the Sacred Stones and release an Ancient evil. That sounds like bad thing. Good thing the stones are safe.

And for saving all the houses I get this.



And please accept my gratitude for driving off that Captain Saar. That Saar treated all the citizens of Renais with such contempt and brutality....

Eirika:
Not here...not in this city. My brother and I spent such happy times here with Lyon...

Man:
I beg your pardon, but it will not be long before Grado sends more troops. Please, you must go quickly.

Eirika:
I'm so sorry. There's nothing I can do for you now. Please forgive me.

Man:
Do not be troubled. Princess Eirika... We will survive and wait for the day of liberation to come. There will be a day when you, Prince Ephraim, and all of Renais rise up... Until that day of glory comes, we will wait unbowed and filled with hope.



Yay, promotion item get. I won’t be needing this for a while, but if I’m going to use the scrubs for post game stuff I’ll as many promotion items as I can get.

Yay, your 2nd favorite is my favorite character lol... Also, a level up is better then a non level up for the end of a battle anyways.

I really should train Guy someday. I was getting around to doing it in Eliwood Hard Mode when my FE7 lost the save file...

In any case, I've never used Natasha. What are her strengths compared to Moulder?

Greater-than sign, colon, left parenthesis.

In general, Moulder has better Skill, Def, and Con, Natasha has better Mag, Luck, and Res. They both have the same speed growth, but Moulder's better Con (11 after promotion vs 6 for Natasha) means he can handle most light magic tomes without penalty. (Ironically light magic tends to be really heavy.)

Natasha's magic growth is significantly higher than Moulders, which is why I favor her. It really is a toss up, but I would argue there is a slight statistical edge for Natasha, with her greatly superior Res and Luck to go with the Magic at the expense of some skill and the con difference.

Snipers get a critical boost in Sacred Stones? I thought they only got that pointless "100% hit" ability.

Yeah see that always bugged me.

You CAN enable their class change as early as 10. But because of how stats work and the length of games, it's almost never a good idea to do so before 20. It's a choice that only serves to kick the newbie player.

I guess you could argue that it's a choice of making early missions easier at the expense of making later ones harder, but I haven't ever seen anyone claim that to be a good idea, for the same reasons they advocate never using Seth until lategame, if that.

That said, I fully support early promotions to see if you can prove my assumptions wrong!

I was certain they do, but I can't find confirmation online anywhere. I may have gotten confused with the GC/Wii games. But I'm sure Sniper Neimi always had a good crit chance.

The reason I consider doing it with Neimi, and sometimes healers, is because they get experience too slowly to get to Level 20 with enough meaningful game left to make much use of the new class. But in Sacred Stones the only reason is a refusal to use the leveling options available. Like I'm intending to do.

Snipers do not get any sort of Critical boost in any way. That's Swordmasters and Berserkers.

All Snipers get is Sure Shot, which is useless for the player but great for the CPU.

If your Neimi kept on criticaling, that was probably because you either gave her a Killer Bow, or you were fighting monsters, who have zero luck if I recall.

Yeah I was wrong about that. I was remembering my last play-through with Neimi and Colm support which gives her a critical boost and that in Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn Snipers do get a critical boost.

This man knows what is up.