Let's All Play Fire Emblem: Draft Edition!

Not that I am aware of, but I've not played the J version or that familiar with the exclusives there.

It was unfortunate that Karel was taken right under my nose, but The Angel of Death Jaffar is just as good.

Isadora because Harken could use some moral support.

Yeah, possibly even better, but damn, he is not around for most of the game. Looking at how everyone else picked their units, I think we all aimed for characters we could get fairly early on, just so we didn't gimp ourselves until later chapters.

Actually, untrue. Marcus and Eliwood can carry a team in Eliwood Normal Mode until you can get your drafted players. I picked Lowen and Serra to help me early on, but I'll pick up Raven and Dart a little later, and Pent will come in to boost me. It's not all about early.

I am surprised at some of the early picks though. Movement rate is a big factor in a draft playthrough, especially on fliers which ignore the terrain. I certainly shouldn't have been able to get 2 of them. I've not got a warp user (unless I get Renault, and only then for the last two chapters - no way is Erk going to hit the staff rank), and half of my picks come pretty late though, so my team is not going to have it easy by any means. I'm going to end up with the last pick too, which I probably won't use much of at all.

My picks were less about efficiency and more about who I'd like to use if I had to pick characters from the FE7 roster.

Yeah, I can understand that. I enjoy drafts because it encourages me to try out characters I wouldn't normally consider though, and learning to deal with their advantages and disadvantages over the preferred replacement. I'm odd that way, but I enjoy a challenge

Well if you wanted us to do that, FE6 would have been the better choice. FE7's cast of all-stars makes it so that the only "downside" most units have is that they come later than another unit.

Except Renault.

Matthew & Vaida, and I'm done.

By the way....can we still do 26x (Night of Farewells)? I get that people without fliers would be at an unfair disadvantage there, but maybe we can make a special rule to circumvent that. Skipping it means losing out on the Fell Contract, after all (and a whole chapter to bulk Nino up, for whoever's using her).

Nino because I hate myself.

Who doesn't want two thieves? Legault.

I dislike 26x with a passion. That, and fliers have a huge advantage on that map, so it is unfair on those teams that lack one. Some drafts do allow it as a place for farming exp with a turn limit, but I decided against it because I can't stand it. As for the Fell Contract, there is a secret shop you can buy one from.

http://serenesforest.net/fe7/secret_shops.htm

26x has nothing on FE6's 14x. All the pain of 26x, only now the Sage with Bolting is at the very center of the map, he has a crack squad of Sages with him to help out in the campaign against fun, and the vast majority of your units have shit for Resistance.

Ah, that's too bad. Okay then. Another rule clarification while I'm here:

Does it mean that, every time undrafted units are attacked (including by Bolting/ballista), you take a penalty? Or is it only if you deliberately use them as a meatshield?

Yes, you would take a turn penalty in each chapter an undrafted unit is targeted by a long range attack (or any attack for that matter), even if it misses. There are only a few places where this really matters, and all of those can be managed, although it does limit the usage of undrafted thieves a little. But that is the advantage of drafting them, despite their weaker combat ability

Admittedly, I thought of that ahead of time (and which is why I ended up drafting Legault), but that would have probably been good knowledge to dispense before the draft. Now me and whoever has Matthew has a bit of an advantage.

Yeah, generally FE7 maps have nothing on FE6's. I personally feel that 26x is kind of fun though, despite those goddamn reappearing bridges, and it's one of the more challenging maps in FE7. Plus, it's always fun to kill Sonia.

I guess I'm going to start now, let's see just how insane this thing could be. Don't let me down, Marcus.

Oh yeah, I was planning on picking Fiora, but that didn't work out so well. Should've been less stupid about my picks, but...eh, I like my team.

Did you know that doing bonus chapters is not beneficial in a low turncount run?

You know who I'm picking.


...Matthew.

Raven already took Matthew. You're going to have to choose between Wallace or Renault.

*facepalm*

Wow, that was stupid of me. Can I pick Geitz (I know toothache said it wasn't allowed for some reason, but I have all 3 lords on my team)?

I think it could've work with turn limit/cap, just for the bonus chapters. But, eh, Toothache had a point there, 26x is probably too vicious for this kind of play-through.

And, er, Matthew's mine. Unless you want to trade him w/ your Hector, that is.

I didn't expect someone to get both lords, but I have a solution to this. Because of the number of characters including Geitz is 36, it was easier to drop him to make it an even 35 to split between five players. However, some drafts count Wallace and Geitz as one choice.

I think in this case, I'll allow the option of getting either Geitz or Wallace, assuming you can meet the level requirements by then. Geitz is a much better unit, but completing his version of the map is a little tougher than the Wallace version.

Wallace's map is Fog of War. How can you possibly say Geitz' is harder?

http://www.fireemblemwod.net/fe7/gui...ulo23Aefe7.htm
http://www.fireemblemwod.net/fe7/gui...ulo23Befe7.htm

Compare the two versions of the map. First of all, Lloyd in Normal mode can be reached on turn 3, where as for Linus' version, it takes a lot longer for a non-flier to fight his way to the boss (a flier has to contend with ballistae as well as being tough enough to kill Linus in the first place if he's just soloing him). You'll also have to be mindful of keeping Dart out of combat if he's not drafted in order to get Geitz to join you - in Wallace's case there are a bunch of units that can recruit him in 3-4 turns on Normal mode, and he can be rescued by fliers to assist in that too. Bear in mind you'll have to dedicate a lot of exp to the three lords in order to reach the combined 50 level requirement among all three, and that is extremely difficult to do without taking some extra turns, especially when Lyn mode isn't involved like in this case.

Another thing to consider is the bosses themselves. Lloyd has a Silver Sword, which while dangerous can be dealt with at range. Linus however has a Silver Blade and a Hand Axe, making him a little tougher to safely deal with.

Fog of War isn't much of an issue when you have Torches, the Torch Staff and thieves to use (yes you can deploy a thief for the improved vision without a penalty), as well as knowing where the enemies will be.

...Doesn't looking up enemy positions completely defeat the point of Fog of War maps? Anyways, I wasn't referring to speedrunning the stages, I was referring to actually clearing them.

The goal in both cases is to beat the boss, so you won't be looking to hang around and kill every unit on the map. Remember, lowest turn count is the goal of the draft in the first place.

Good luck getting to Lloyd and Linus with a normal playstyle without just killing everyone in your way.

And herein lies the point of a draft - you aren't playing in a 'normal', casual way. One of the beauties of the Fire Emblem series is that it can be tackled in multiple ways, and the variation in units and the randomness of unit stats allow for even more tactical nuances. As I stated in the OP, the point here is to encourage appreciation for a different way of doing things, and a draft environment is perhaps the easiest way for people to move from casual play to a more efficient sort of play, encouraging real strategy in your strategy RPG as it were. :-)

Chapter 11: 5/5 turns

Let's get the first update on the board then. Just having Marcus and Eliwood makes things tricky to avoid a penalty, but not impossible.



Lowen shifts to position, so that Marcus can take his Javelin and attack this brigand from range. If Marcus fails to hit with one attack, Eliwood could step in and finish him off. The ability to feed exp to weaker units is always helpful. Marcus does kill this guy though.



At the start of turn 2, Bartre and Dorcas show up, and are in a place where they could be the target of enemy attacks. Eliwood has a higher priority though, the AI normally prefer attacking lords or undefended units if they get the chance, and he is tough enough to take a few hits at this level.



I did however luck out here with the Rapier, scoring a critical on the archer and preventing him being a major pain later on. Lowen was there to give Eliwood his Iron Sword, so I don't use up the Rapier early on.



Next turn, I have Marcus rescue his lord and move his full distance. Lowen will move back to avoid luring enemies his way, and Marcus can destroy every enemy here with the Steel Sword he carries.



That is, assuming all of them hit. He does clear 3 out of 4, which is fine, the main point is that he is not blocked from reaching the village.



Eliwood gets dropped in seize range next turn. He does have a small risk of death if all three enemies hit, but that is unlikely given two of then have axes.



I do come dangerously close though.



Phew.



Just before I seize, I pull up this window to show how many turns it took. 5 turns is par for this map, I'd say.