Let's All Play Fire Emblem: Draft Edition!

Chapter 12: 5/10 turns

A double update, given these early maps are so short.



First thing's first, I want Marcus to build that axe rank for the extra damage. It's not like he'll have accuracy issues with that 50% skill growth. Bartre offloads his weapons. Marcus moves to the fort, with Eliwood moving nearby.

I'm choosing to forego the Secret Book - Sain might appreciate it, but I doubt accuracy will be much of an issue, and you start off with some cash to buy weapons so I'm not struggling like I would be in Hector mode. In case it isn't clear, visiting a village with an undrafted unit does mean a penalty, which is why I skipped on the Dragonshield as well.



Marcus is best dealing with the enemies over the hill there. Eliwood can get some exp gains by working on this mercenary here, and later on the few soldiers he can reach.



After 2 attacks Eliwood is looking the better of the two sword fighters, though notably injured.



I can of course, deal with that easily, by placing him on a forest tile, and chugging a vulnerary.



Marcus made it to the hill. He can kill every enemy on the enemy phase except the archer, which he can reach next turn.



Hector and Oswin show up, and immediately get to work. Hector takes out one soldier with the Wolf Beil, and Oswin will chip at the archer and take it to 2 HP, and can be finished by either Eliwood or Oswin next turn.



The mercenary that was heckling Eliwood all chapter finally dies, giving his first level up. He appreciates the defensive gains but this could be a lot better.



Enemies enjoy the suicide it seems. Even the boss here doesn't mind feeding us with some tasty exp.



I hope this is not a continuing trend.



Most of the enemies have been done away with, having killed themselves on either Marcus or Oswin (who doubles all the soldiers amusingly). Only three left. Eliwood gets the last soldier, Oswin picks off the archer, and Marcus will get the archer near him.



Caught my turn count again before the last kill. I'll remember to show units current stats in further updates.

Damn, you used Marcus an awful lot there. It's probably the most viable strategy for you at the moment, though.

...And what I'm saying is that in a normal, non speedrun game, Lloyd's map is harder. I'm not ignoring the fact that this is a speedrun LAP, but I'm just saying that in a normal playthrough Lloyd's map is more difficult due to the Fog of War.

In any case, let's just end this "argument" here before it takes up the whole thread.




I start off by doing exactly what Toothache did to get a Javelin on Marcus. Marcus is unlucky, though, and misses on his second hit.



So Eliwood snatches Lowen's Iron Sword to finish the Bandit off.



Eliwood and Bartre tagteam this Archer,



And Marcus scores a lucky critical with Dorcas' Steel Axe.



Then he effortlessly deals with the boss.



5 Turn Victory.




Since the goal of this chapter is to kill everything, it's safe to let Marcus get this book. I just need to move Eliwood and Bartre in position to lure the enemy to them.



Speaking of Eliwood, I have him use Dorcas' Energy Ring.



Level ups. Before you ask, no, I'm not manipulating the RNG this time.



Hector and Oswin are free to use this chapter, so I'm letting them deal with the northern forces.



I still wish Chain Attacks were in Fire Emblem.



More level ups.



Victory on Turn 7.

Turn Total: 12

Well, considering how much of a pain in the ass that mission is sometimes, even with all your units, it's kind of difficult to image using only four of them without using Marcus.

Hopefully having Lowen to use will allow me to get the stat boosters and level Eliwood and Lowen up more than Toothache did. Will Umby get the early lead? Will he be par for the course?

We'll find out during: Umby's Awesome Run of Awesome!

Part 1:
Whose Kill is it Anyway?

A Note About This Let's Play; Your Gracious Tactician Speaks:


I listen to music while I play through the chapters, and I'll provide you all with a selection of each album I go through. For example, today's selection starts with some Summer Goddess, by "Soil" and Pimp Sessions.

And I'm new to all this picture taking, so expect some hiccups and other things on quality of my work. Thank you!

Chapter 11:
As usual, all games start with some sort of baddie taking over some village/house/something. And you have to liberate it. Our boss of the day is:



Groznyi. A mouthful! But no harder to beat than any other first boss.


First turn, I send Lowen to weaken the first bandit in front of me, Eliwood takes him out and gets some experience from it. Marcus runs up ahead to save the village and grab its dragonshield, and Rebecca hides in the forest and is too terrified to kill a single bandit.


The bandit AI thinks it's smart by going into a fortress and getting better defense. His main mistake is attacking Marcus right after. He dies a painful, horrible death.


And after all the bandits shuffle slowly towards my party, these dolts come out! Thankfully they're too braindead to do anything. They'll cower in the corner because I tell them to.


Lowen takes a potshot so that Eliwood can become a blue blur and get the kill. Marcus steals a shield from a middle-aged woman and runs off with his extra movement for being on a horse. Boy, those Pherae knights sure are chivalrous!


Eliwood next turn goes after a bandit, but leaves him with ten hit points. Lowen charges ahead and draws the attention of other bandits, and Marcus gets ready to swoop in and take out the sole threat this level, the archer.


Lowen gets the attention he wants, but also takes a few hits in the process. Rub some dirt in it, Lowen! Eliwood takes out the bandit who attacks him after he so mercifully spares him last turn, and gets a mediocre level up out of it.

Marcus, now ready to pounce, takes out the archer in spectacular fashion. The other two move into position to take out any stragglers.


Hahahahahahah. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

You fool.


It's going to be a short fight, folks. And just because we take advantage of middle-aged ladies means we can't be Pheran Knights. You practically took hold of a whole village, anyway, Groznyi!


Lowen gets a level up taking out the remaining bandit. Marcus grabs some vulneraries as it'll be another chapter until we get our healer for the game.


Eliwood seizes the same turn, with a turn count of six.

CHAPTER 11 END: 6 TURNS/6 TURNS TOTAL

And while we're at it, let's get another out of the way.

Part 1:
Whose Kill is it Anyway?
Chapter 12

Godot - The Black Fragrance of Coffee, from the album "Turnabout Jazz Soul".


Dorcas gives Eliwood an energy ring and Marcus ignores the village in lieu for giving Eliwood his steel sword to play around with. He promptly uses the energy ring so that he can hit harder and not have to deal with lousy attack stats.


The enemies creep closer. I missed a picture of Lowen taking out a bandit with a critical hit, which didn't help me go faster but whatever, critical hits are COOL THINGS. Eliwood equips his rapier and stands menacingly in front of the mercenary, and Marcus spies yet another shop and can't resist taking another trip. He's been having a hard day already, so why not?



Mercenary attacks Eliwood, Eliwood counterattacks and then kills on the next turn. Meanwhile I get some iron weapons so I don't have to keep switching things around and losing turns! Handy.


Eliwood stands on the fortress, Marcus positions himself right underneath and trades him his iron sword for Eliwood's steel sword, and Lowen goes yet one more down and liberates Marcus of his iron lance.


Eliwood takes out yet another bandit.


Convenient! Thanks for moving towards me. Saves me time. Eliwood, however, has the opposite reaction and freaks out.


Hector and Oswin come in to save the day and harass some archers and soldiers. Oswin actually criticals here and takes out the archer in one hit! Hector responds in kind and can hit the slow-as-molasses soldiers here twice.


Eliwood counterattacks once again on an enemy turn and gets yet another "OK" level up. That defense may need some work...


Lowen takes out his enemy as well, and benefits from a speed boost. And now for the Marcus section of the level.

But not before one of the oddest Hector level ups I've seen in a while! Not like I'll be using him past this chapter, as everyone knows Ostia knights are way too slow to do anything useful.


With his newfound speed and iron sword, Eliwood can now take out these fighters in one battle. Go Eliwood!


Go Eliwood! I use yet another boost on Eliwood as I see that defense could become a problem early on. Marcus is now prepped for the Marcus show.


Say your prayers, buddy boy. Please do tell the others how its done, specifically how you should die at the hands of a Pherae knight. Marcus then gets a nifty speed boost as a reward! And thus ends the level, whose turn count I forgot to capture (it was on an enemy turn that it ended) but I specifically know it is six.


Nobody knew where Hector came from, and nobody knew where he went after this chapter either. Perhaps nobody will EVER KNOW

CHAPTER 12 END: 6 TURNS/12 TURNS TOTAL

TUNE IN NEXT TIME FOR MORE EXCITING ADVENTURES WITH The Three Pherae Knights!

Units Available: Eliwood (Lord Lv 1), Marcus (Paladin Lv 1), Dorcas (Fighter Lv 1)
Turn Count: 5

The Lunatic Mode begins!

This is the first time I played a Fire Emblem draft, and it is certainly much more taxing than a regular play. Mostly because I keep forgetting tiny details, like pulling out my undrafted units out of enemy's range. But, like Toothache stated, it is a really good challenge that force you to use units you otherwise won't ever use, as well as encouraging much more strategic thinking in positioning, attack allocation, and inventory management. For all those who are watching, I encourage you to give this a try.

As for this chapter, I have Eliwood, Marcus, and Dorcas in my disposal. I think it is possible to finish this in 4 turns, but I have to be insanely lucky and would probably be a unit short anyway. Therefore, 5 it is. As for Turn 1, I pretty much did the same thing as Toothache's; Marcus attacks the nearby Brigand with Javelin, and Eliwood standing by for the kill in case the Paladin misses (which he didn't). Oh, and Lowen relinquished his weapons to Eliwood and Marcus. Thanks, Lowen! Now, go sit there with Rebecca and cook us some food.



Turn 2, Dorcas and Bartre appeared. I have Dorcas finished the second Brigand, previously weakened by Eliwood. Take note of his iffy accuracy: 80% chance of hitting a slow Brigand with an Iron weapon doesn't really bode well. Anyway, Marcus proceeded to rescue Eliwood and they eloped forward toward the boss.



Turn 3: I have Marcus dropped Eliwood, and the Lord was attacked by two Brigands and an Archer. Amazingly, he evaded all of them. Marcus eradicated those foolish enough to challenge him, and Dorcas traded blows with an enemy Archer (the Archer won't attack Bartre because he equipped the Hand Axe)



Turn 4: Fun killin' time. Dorcas is in a little bit of a pinch though; again, I'm lucky that he didn't miss any hit in this chapter. Should totally give him some Vulnerary in later maps.



Turn 5: Oh wow, I can't remember the last time I beat a boss with Marcus. Brings back memories. I toyed with the idea of sacrificing a turn or two in order to have Eliwood grab the kill, but then deciding against it. Dorcas did grab his third kill today, and gain a level-up...a fairly crappy one. Among all my drafted guys, Dorcas' stat growth is the one that worried me the most, but I'll talk about it more in a later post.

So, par for the course, and a level-up for one of my draftees. It's just the first step on this long and winding road, however.

Uh oh, already I am behind my counterparts! This must be alleviated somehow.

I don't know if we feel like discussing strategies, but my idea is that if I get my characters well leveled up now, the longer and tougher chapters will be easier to finish quickly. This is why I spent an extra turn in Chapter 11 when I could have gone par for the course, and perhaps why Chapter 12 could have gone better (but still, good level ups). Is this a viable strategy?

It is better to farm exp on chapters like 13x. Marcus destroys most of the needed combat in the early game, and there'll be plenty of opportunity to gain exp for your other units as the game progresses. Having an early drafted unit like Lowen will make things a lot easier, I expect to lose time in ch13 since I don't have an extra unit to take down the snags.

So, I'm going to review everyone in my draft roster (including Eliwood and Marcus) just after I got them. I would explain my general perception on them and the initial strategy of using them in this kind of set-up, as well as posting up on their developments along the game.

Overall, I'm reasonably satisfied with my picks. Two swords, a lance, an axe, a dark magic, a healer, and a thief seems as versatile and balanced as it could be. Oh, and also God Mode Marcus. The biggest boon, however, is probably the fact that I'm already going to acquire about 80% of them just after a few chapter; giving me lots of resource and bulking up opportunity from early. Some of them could also Support each other, although I'm doubtful if it is going to be much of a benefit in this kind of play.

Anyway, three characters for today:



You probably already know everything about our stereotypical archetypal hero. Needless to say, Eliwood is very crucial in my campaign, being the lone usable Lord and all. I had mixed experience with him; sometimes, he would have terrible stat gains, and some other times he would have okay-ish gains. As good as he could be though, he would never be as good as Hector or even Lyn. This is probably because he is all-rounded i.e doesn't specialize or excel in anything, which makes him kind of like a less versatile Cavalier who doesn't even have a horse before promotion.

Still, we have loads of time before his plot-triggered promotion, so I wouldn't worry too much. If his growth isn't satisfactory enough along the way, I'll be more than happy to toss some items on him. And, I still think he is better than his son at least, although Durandal has nothing on the mighty Sword of Seals.



Like anyone else who had been playing Fire Emblem for a long time, I went through a three-phase relationship with Marcus:

1) Holy shit, he's the best unit in the game! He can absolutely destroy anyone...wait.
2) Holy crap, Marcus sucks and is the worst character in the game.
3) Oh wow, Marcus is awesome after all.

The gist is that Marcus is absolutely essential in any kind of mode besides Normal. Especially for me, who can't use any Cavalier, his versatility and range are a godsend. As long as I'm being careful and not let him soak experience too much, he'll be the backbone of the team for a long time. I'm actually really curious to see how far he can go before his horrible stat growth eventually catch up to him, as I never used him beyond the pirate ship level before. He'll battle Vaida for the last spot on the final battle, although I have a feeling that he would probably edge it out (even his crappier and older self in FE6 is still really vital in that game's Hard Mode).



(HP: 80%, Str: 60%, Skl: 40%, Spd: 20%, Lck: 45%, Def: 25%, Res: 15%)

I like Dorcas...as a personality. He has a simple but commendable philosophy in life, and his quiet demeanor (without being overly distant or cold) feels apt and realistic. As a unit. however, Dorcas is a bit flawed. Personally, I think the Fighter class has the most unbalanced stat-build of all: they were designed in such a way that their weaknesses largely offset their strengths. What good does loads of HP do if enemy can blow through your shitty Defense and non-existent Resistance? What good does loads of Strength do if you can’t strike accurately, or double-attacking often enough?

Dorcas, in particular, suffers from having an appalling Speed growth and ho-hum growth in every other departments; he has arguably the worst growth rate between all unpromoted units. The last time I used him, he is the only unit slow enough to be double-attacked in Victory or Death, and that cost me a lot. I'm willing to give him another chance though, as he could still be a great Warrior unit (by then, I probably have him switch to bows; he's too unreliable with axes). He would be really important early, as he is my primary axe-user and the main weapon against those armor knights. Please be kind to him, Random Number God.

So we are doing the Gaiden missions? All of them, or just a certain selection?

Oh my.

I can't read this without thinking of the rampant AI from the Marathon series. Miss you buddy xoxo.

On a more serious note, I'm really enjoying this. I like seeing the different ways you guys tackle things, and I can't wait to see entirely different teams attack the missions. Thanks all!

Marcus usually peters out around Cog of Destiny. And by "peters out", I mean "the other Cavaliers catch up to him".

I might as well do this too.



(HP: 80%, Str: 45%, Skl: 50%, Spd: 40%, Lck: 45%, Def: 30%, Res: 35%)

Eliwood's growths are almost exactly like Roy's, but Eliwood doesn't suffer from absurdly terrible stat caps. Eliwood also doesn't have to be shy about using his super weapon, though he doesn't really have much incentive to considering how overall crappy (and expensive!) the Durandal is. Eliwood's main advantage over his son is his promotion; not only does it take place much, much earlier, Eliwood gets a horse and an alternate weapon from it.

Roy proves to be a much better as far as plot goes, though; let's see Eliwood a) lead an army across the entire continent, b) get a loving wife the respect of important individuals from each country,



and c) kill a dragon in one hit.

EDIT:





(HP: 65%, Str: 30%, Skl: 50%, Spd: 25%, Lck: 30%, Def: 15%, Res: 35%)

Marcus has a reputation as a terrible unit. This isn't entirely unwarranted (relying on Marcus is going to get you killed, and he tends to be useless by endgame), but it's undeniable how useful he is in challenge runs. Not only does he have the excellent mobility of a mounted unit, he starts off with high weapon ranks in all three melee weapons and some wonderfully terrible base stats. That last point might sound odd until you realize that Marcus is very good at crippling strong opponents for other units to kill steal.



(HP: 85%, Str: 50%, Skl: 35%, Spd: 40%, Lck: 30%, Def: 30%, Res: 25%)

On an overall basis, Bartre is probably the best axe user in the entire game. He suffers from some terrible starting stats (most notably his base Speed of 3), but he arrives extremely early and suffers from none of the other problems everyone else has (Hector's plot based promotion (this only counts for Hector's Tale, of course), Dorcas' shit Speed, Hawkeye's/Geitz's shit growths and bases, Dart's ridiculous promotion cost and extraordinarily terrible Skill, Marcus' terrible endgame, other Paladins/Generals' need to level up Axe rank from E). In fact, the only thing holding Bartre back is his mediocre Skill growth, and that can be fixed with a couple Secret Books. I'm slightly dissappointed I won't be able to turn him into a Hero or a Berserker this time around, but Warriors have access to Bows (and one of the best critical animations ever) so I'll live.

Oh, I may as well clarify something now. Maps with fixed turns count as 1 extra turn by the end. 13x for example is a Defend map for 7 turns, but the game counts it as 8. If you can kill the boss to end the map sooner however, then it doesn't count the extra turn - an example of this is Pirate Ship, where you can kill the boss as early as turn 3 out of 11.

Chapter 13: 7/17 turns

Ok, here's where my lack of early units will cost some time. Hopefully my later choices can pick up the slack. Anyway.

In order to visit the gaiden, we need to have one of my two units visit the village in the north west. This of course means busting through the snags along the west route.



I make things easier on myself by rescuing half of the unrecruited units, since space is limited around that village area.



I have to move everyone this way, since enemies follow behind and I'll take a penalty if they reach any of them. Marcus knocks down the second snag on turn 3, clearing a mercenary out of his path.



Turn 4, and Eliwood can reach the village. That's one goal achieved. Marcus rescues him



Doesn't move his full distance however. There's a pesky archer that can cause problems for my undrafted units avoiding combat too, I will need to have Marcus damage him on enemy phase so he uses a vulnerary next turn instead of attacking.



I bring my other units as close as I can without getting in the archer's range. Marcus takes him down to 1 HP with the Hand Axe, finishing the solder that can reach him.



I didn't need that Mine anyway.



Eliwood's drop position is carefully chosen. It might seem crazy, but there is a good reason for it. The boss lacks a ranged attack which helps. Marcus cannot take him out in a single round of combat, so I can use this time to give Eliwood some much needed exp.



As much as I'd like to lure Guy out for his Killing Edge, I doubt I'll be able to do so safely without a bunch of enemies following.



Note the archer moved a single space south before healing. Eliwood can just reach him next turn now to finish him off.



Soldier? More like loldier amirite? Only the forest tile saved the southern one from being killed by Eliwood.



Again, I ponder the possibility of recruiting Guy. This bandit is the only thing stopping me putting Matthew in range of a next turn recruitment, since he has 1 range over Guy and can safely manage it without drawing himself into battle.



Eliwood levels from the archer kill. Not terrible I guess, but that Str needs to go up pretty soon. From here, he can just reach the castle to seize next turn, and that other soldier will suicide on him so his route isn't blocked, which is nice.



Marcus gets the kill on Boies on the enemy phase. This is a bit better.



No dice on Guy. I got as close as I could with Matthew but he didn't budge an inch. Oh well.

I should mention I did a bit of shopping with my undrafted units, mostly for 1-2 range weapons, and some vulneraries since I lack a healer until Erk promotes.

Well, I guess I'll follow Umby's tradition of putting the music I'm listening to while playing the game. Today's is something a bit familiar to those who are participating in the most recent Thunderdome.

♫Violent Storm (Baten Kaitos)♫


So while I was doing the usual trading mellarchy, I checked Marcus' stats to see how bad he was, and...



- A paladin serving House Pherae. A skilled veteran.

(HP: 65%, Str: 30%, Skl: 50%, Spd: 25%, Lck: 30%, Def: 15%, Res: 35%)

he's actually a damn lot better than I remember him being. Perhaps it's because I've played Fire Emblem Shadow Dragon and the original Jagen is hilariously bad (even by Shadow Dragon standards), but Marcus could actually be useful, especially in a challenge run like this one. His growths are kind of awful, but at least his starting stats make up for that. Also yes, the character growths are a bit redundant when Blitz is also doing them, but since we do have almost entirely different sets of characters, it'll only really be a problem now.



Unfortunately, Marcus hits his target twice, and deprives Eliwood/Rebecca of some much needed EXP. Speaking of Eliwood and Rebecca!



- A youth from Pherae. Very helpful and bright.

HP 60%, Str 45%, Ski 50%, Spd 60%, Luk 50%, Def 15%, MDef 30%

Rebecca's starting stats are...eh, not so great, but she's only Level 1 and has some great growths to balance them out. Really, she's probably the best unit available in Chapter 1 of Eliwood Mode, although it takes some effort to bring her up to par with the other units.



- Marquess Pherae's young son. Just and honorable.

HP 80%, Str 45%, Ski 50%, Spd 40%, Luk 45%, Def 30%, MDef 35%

Eliwood's definetely a middle of the road lord. He's definetely better than the likes of Marth and even Roy in terms of pure stats (Roy gets the Sealed Sword which is fucking overpowered, which is probably why Durandal is so gimped in the first place), but if he wasn't a Lord, there wouldn't be much reason to use him. Of course, if you get a bit lucky with his strength/speed growths, he can turn out to be godly.



Eliwood and Rebecca are so weak at the beginning of the game that it usually takes three hits to kill an enemy, which is a bit damning when they can only hit an enemy once. Thankfully, Marcus is here to make the chapter go by faster.

...OK, so all my screenshot captured was a white screen, so you'll have to take my word that he did indeed kill the 20 HP archer with a 100% chance of hitting 21 dmg attack with the Steel Sword.



Oh, and I give Eliwood the Energy Ring, a move that proves to be useless the very next turn.



The enemy units generally go for units who can't counter back (unless another unit is almost dead or they can gang up on a unit to kill him/her), so obviously he went for Rebecca. It was a lucky dodge on my part, although it really wouldn't matter if the attack hit or not.



More Marcus being Marcus, and because Rebecca is too damn weak to kill one of these mooks, I had to have Eliwood use his Rapier to finish the guy off. Obviously leaving him back here would hurt my turncount, so I "rescued" him with Lowen.



Oh, and I had Rebecca use the Energy Ring to make her much more useful early on. See, my early playthrough is (slightly) different!



Oh, and Marcus killed 3 banditos, but in the interest of keeping this all in one update, I'll only show the critical hit kill.



Note the archer, who'll be getting off scott free by the end of this update.



Marcus kills the easy boss (not shown here). Also, it's generally a good idea to kill all of the enemies on a map unless it's a timed thing, but in this case, I really didn't want to waste an extra turn. By the looks of it, everyone else fed that kill to Marcus anyways, so I'm really coming out ahead in that regard.



Definitive proof that I took 5 turns! Also, no level ups makes me very sad. [INSERT SAD FACE HERE]

Since this is a SRPG/TRPG, I decided to go with the music of an upcoming release in the same genre. Hope you enjoy.

♫Battlefield 1 (Shin Megami Tensei Devil Survivor 2)♫



So like Toothache before me, I had Bartre give Marcus all of his axes.



And I had Dorcas stock up on vulnerary’s, seeing as I'm lacking a healer of my own.



Marcus is definitely the MVP for the first few chapters.



Oh, and the boss finally decides to get off his fat ass and come at us.



As a sidenote, the animations in this game are amazing. One of my favorites is Eliwood's dodge.



More of the same, moving on...



Oh, and Hector joins up! He's definitely the best Lord in the game, so it's nice to have him on the team this early. Now about his stats-

- Marquess Ostia's younger brother. Reckless, but loyal.

HP 90%, Str 60%, Ski 45%, Spd 35%, Luk 30%, Def 50%, MDef 25%

Most of his growths are fantastic, really the only thing that you'll find lacking in speed. Hector tends to get speed screwed quite easily, so I'll most likely be feeding him all of my Speedwings. Besides that, he's pretty damn awesome and being able to use axes well is always a plus. I'd say he's the best axe user in the game.



Also the Wolf Beil is awesome.



And what's this, a Rebecca kill? Also missed a shot of the Enemy Turn Combat, so here's the result of what actually ensued during that.

I moved Marcus a little closer, because there's no way I can count on just Eliwood and Rebecca to finish all of the enemies off in a reasonable amount of time, barring some sort of lucky streak of critical hits.



Huh, I'm suddenly reminded of why I don't generally use Marcus.



I got a good feeling!



Since Hector is lagging so far behind, I had him buy some extra equipment. I'm so glad we're not doing a Tactics run, because my Funds rating will plummet to the ground over the course of this LP.



Turncount before the end!

There really isn't much to say about this map. My main units moved west to get to the village to unlock 13x, and my other units followed them to not bait the enemy forces into attacking them.



After slaughtering the boss' guards, Marcus weakened the boss enough for either Bartre or Eliwood to kill him.



Guy was recruited.



And Bartre killed the boss.



Six turns for completion.

Turn Total: 18

Six speed for Bartre at level six? Are you sure that's real!?

One he's at level 5, and two Bartre has a good Speed growth. This isn't odd at all.

So what you're saying is at level five, he has six speed. He starts at level 2, and has a speed growth of 40%. He gets a speed level up growth of 100%! That's pretty abnormal, but obviously not impossible.

I'M JUST JEALOUS OK?

I'm a FELP addict but even so, this is fun to follow. The tactics are pretty much the same so far but it should deviate a lot pretty soon...

Speaking of different tactics, watch as I rigidly adhere to the "normal" method of going through Chapter 13, with no regard to my turncount whatsoever!

♫For Achieve (Star Ocean)♫



Dorcas does one of the only useful things that he can do, namely giving all of his axes to a better character and hoarding away some junk, while Marcus whacks a tree stump.



Hector proceeds to whack this imbecile with his axe with a not very reassuring hit rate (but remember, the mook was on a forest, Hector's not quite as bad as Dorcas yet), before Eliwood gets a very mediocre level up. Words do not describe how mediocre this level up is, save for the fact that even Marcus managed to pull off a better level up than this. When your unit is being compared to Marcus, things aren't looking so well for him/her.



Rebecca sets up the kill for He-God damn it, game! This is probably where any sane person would've resetted it and given the chapter another try, but not me.



At least Eliwood doesn't get screwed over by the RnG devils.



Some more gallivanting goes about for the next few turns, which results in Rebecca getting a decent level up and a bunch of dead enemies (not shown).



Oh, and Hector manages to get an "eh..." level up before-



-almost getting himself killed.

Ha-ha, Eliwood is so fucked. Better get ready to restart the chapter. On a brief sidenote, Marcus is killing the boss.



I suppose this is to be expected for a Marcus level up. At least it's better than that mediocre level up Eliwood gained earlier this chapter. Speaking of Eliwood-





Wow, I'm not going to lie, that was pretty spectacular. Managing not to get criticaled by Guy, surviving the onslaught of enemies, and getting that fucking ridiculous level up. But that's not all-



Am I lucky or what?



Oh, and Rebecca gets a pretty good level up out of the whole ordeal.



And with that horribly inefficient method of getting through Chapter 13, I am done and ready to move on to the Chapter 13x.

Units Available: Eliwood (Lord Lv 1), Marcus (Paladin Lv 1), Dorcas (Fighter Lv 4), Oswin (Knight Lv 9), Hector (Lord Lv 1)
Turn Count: 7 (Total Turns: 12)

The second chapter was still pretty simple. For this one, I'm going to restrain a bit on using Marcus and hand majority of the kills to Eliwood.



Bartre: Whoo, so many enemies! I'm so burning up!
Dorcas: Great...now hand me that Hand Axe of yours.
Bartre: Sure, bro! But...wait, I don't have any weapon left! You already took my Iron Axe before!
Dorcas: Fight with your bare hands. Use Headbutt on them or something. Actually, no, you're not allowed to fight. That would be against the rules, and we're playing a special game here.
Bartre: What game!? What rules!? Uuugh....my head!!!

.......Anyway, I haven't use Dorcas' Energy Ring yet, I'm waiting to see how things develop first (most likely it's going to Guy, or maybe Eliwood). Speaking about boosting items, I also decided I want that Secret Book for Dorcas, so I sent Marcus to fetch it. Cost me a turn or two in this map, but it's okay. I unleashed Eliwood and Dorcas to deal with the enemies instead.



Eliwood got a lot of action! I equip him with Rapier all the time, hoping that he may get a lucky critical or two that would speed things up. But, he only got it once--when it didn't matter. on the other hand, those two level-ups are pretty sweet. The Speed gain is particularly nice, since he can now double-attack the Fighters in this map.



Meanwhile, on the other side of the map, our new guy arrived: the impenetrable wall, Oswin (and that other guy who didn't really matter for this play). I had Hector sit on the corner, so that Oswin could absorb all the experience points from the enemy. He did it with aplomb, critical-ing an Archer on his first attack, and murdering all those puny Soldiers easily. Still nine points shy of a level-up, though.



Our three-man team of Eliwood, Dorcas, and Marcus (who had caught up to them by the end of turn 4) systematically advanced and eliminated those standing on the way. As you can see, Dorcas used the Secret Book and gain a nice level-up...although I'm still going to be worried until he could gain some goddamn Speed. By the end of turn 6, I had Marcus crossed the mountain and killed a Mercenary with Javelin; now, the only one left is Zagan, the boss. Oh, and somewhere there, errand boy Bartre bought Iron Sword and Iron Axe for Marcus.



On the enemy's turn, Zagan and Marcus traded blows, leaving the boss barely hanging with only 4 HP. Just as planned. Eliwood moved in for the kill, and got his third level-up for today. Not bad, not bad.

Things are shaping up pretty nicely: three level-ups for Eliwood, Dorcas has double-digit Skill that he sorely needed, and a new awesome character joining us...with another one waiting just around the corner after this.

(HP: 90%, Str: 40%, Skl: 30%, Spd: 30%, Lck: 35%, Def: 55%, Res: 30%)

Oswin is the best adviser-type character I have ever seen in any S-RPG, and also an awesome unit to boot. Despite his obvious disadvantages (slow, lower movement range that could be harmful to a low-turn play), Oswin is still a very worthy ally and an especially valuable asset in defensive situations, as we soon shall see in 13x. His Speed and Resistance growth are not that bad (better than Dorcas, actually!), and that Strength and Defense of him are enough to result in many one-hit-kills and no-damages. He has one of the most balanced stat growth distribution, in fact.

A rare 'high floor, high ceiling' type of character, Oswin join in already being great and would continue to be for the rest of the game--unless the RNG really screw him up, of course. In my opinion, he is also the best armor knight in FE GBA games (not counting Amelia, a special case): Wendy is far too frustrating to train and very ineffective pre-promotion, Bors' and Gilliam's Speed handicap is way too severe, and Barth just has a horrendous growth. Just wait until I can get him Boots and Brave Lance.

Raven, what are you using to capture your images? They're pretty blurry.