Let's All Play Fire Emblem: Draft Edition!

BTW, you may want to resize the last triplet of images. Unless you prefer it that way, of course.

And I'd just like to say that I'm enjoying the other LPers writeups, even if it does make me cringe when I found that that I could have cut a few turns off of my playthrough by being a little more efficient.

I'll be busy for the next few days, so I don't know if I can get an update up. But I can assure you that I have a great idea for my strategy this time around...

Yeah, I just realized that after posting them here. I captured them directly from the regular VBA, and then resize them to 200%, but this seems not to be the best option. Any advice?

Download IrfanView. It is what I use to resize the screenshots I'm using. It can handle batch conversion as well which is convenient.

Ayup, I used IrfanView to resize them too, actually. But, it comes off like that when I enlarged the screenshots, so maybe I used the wrong setting or something (the original captured screens are 240x160 pixels, by the way)

Are you sure? Maybe you did something wrong somewhere in between, because your screenshots are way smaller than 200%.

Maybe because it's panorama image? Anyway, everytime I enlarge the dimensions, the screenshots become blurry. I'll just tinker with the batch conversion options in the meantime until I can find what's wrong. Maybe have to bring this to the tech thread.

Units Available: Eliwood (Lord Lv 4), Dorcas (Fighter Lv 5), Marcus (Paladin Lv 1), Oswin (Knight Lv 9), Matthew (Thief Lv 2), Guy (Myrmidon Lv 3)
Turn Count: 7 (Total Turns: 19)

While I'm still working on the screenshot issue, might just as well drop another update. This chapter is pretty boring really, and I missed out on a lot of experience points in order to seize as quickly as possible. On the plus side, a certain sword-dancer is now part of the draft team.



Spend the first two turns moving everyone to the northwest, while catching Merlinus and the gaiden requirement along the way. The village on the east is soon wrecked, though. Feel kind of bad about that.



I had Dorcas and Oswin leading the line, and yeah, that's Dorcas attacking a Mercenary there. It's like sending a sheep to kill a wolf. But, to be fair, he actually managed to land a killing blow on the enemy's turn. Oswin, meanwhile, barely broke a sweat and gain a good level-up in the process-that Speed gain is always nice. Afterward, I have Marcus go south to lure Guy, Eliwood and Matthew followed close behind him, Dorcas and Oswin stayed to deal with the Brigand and Archer chasing us from behind, and everyone else pretended to be trees.



Oh, this is the first time ever I see Guy's hit rate below 50%. Anyway, he missed, and Marcus crippled him with his Steel Sword. Marcus also got a level-up after killing enemy Soldier, a kind of good one...for his standard.Matthew moved in to convert Guy...



Oh, it's totally fair, Guy. Just play by the rules, like me. Marcus moved to engage Boies, Guy used a Vulnerary, and Eliwood moved to seize range. Meanwhile, Dorcas cleaned up our chasers, with a little help from Oswin's Javelin. That 10 Skill comes pretty handy, although once again he's on the brink of death, even after using a Vulnerary in the middle of battle. The fact that Eliwood has double the amount of Dorcas' Defense shouldn't be lost to anyone, either.

Marcus killed Boies on the enemy's turn, Guy got some experience points by killing an Archer, and Eliwood seized to end this in 7 turns. Heading on to 13x, where I can finally farm some exp. Might as well bulk everyone up before 14, which I feel might be the hardest map yet in this challenge.

Yeah, another two new units after 13.


(HP: 75%, Str: 30%, Skl: 50%, Spd: 70%, Lck: 45%, Def: 15%, Res: 25%)

Goofy, clumsy, and hopelessly idealistic; I can relate very much with Guy, who reminded me of how I used to be. Objectively, Guy is far from being the best unit in the game, but he had never let me down every single time I used him. As long as his Strength doesn't suffer too much (one-in-a-three chance is sub-par, but isn't bad enough to ruin him), he'll be a killing machine provided I can use him effectively i.e using the right kind of swords and maximizing terrain protection. And, it's always nice to have a unit guaranteed to always attack twice with deadly accuracy.

Once promoted, Guy becomes a critical and dodging savant; with Support and Killing Edge, his crit rate could go as high as 90%. I used him many times to single-handedly destroy armies in late-game chapters, and I'm fairly confident he can do the same in this challenge.



(HP: 75%, Str: 30%, Skl: 40%, Spd: 70%, Lck: 50%, Def: 25%, Res: 20%)

Matthew, the ruthless killer behind a jester's facade, may be a very ineffective combat unit, but as utility-man he's nigh indispensable. His stats, except Speed, frankly sucks but I'm not going to use him in the front-line after all. Legault may be a better pick, but Matthew comes earlier, and I decided I want a thief as soon as possible. Plus, I'm fairly confident I can squeeze the full Support between him and Guy, which would be truly beneficial for both of them.

The two times I used Matthew as a combat unit (both in Hector's Mode, where he somehow always had more luck with growth; I'm not sure if this is a coincidence or not), he actually turned up surprisingly well. But, seeing that Fell Contract is only available in the penultimate chapter, his primary purpose in this challenge is going to be a support unit--albeit a fairly important one.

Oh, and for those not averse to fanfiction-reading, there is a fairly good one out there focusing on Guy, Matthew, and their camaraderie during and after some critical events in the game. It's called Fighting Fair.

As this Gaiden mission takes place in the night, I tried to listen to something more thematically appropriate.

♫Menu Select (Metroid Prime)♫



Here's how things look at the end of turn 1. Nothing really more to say about the matter than that. Thank god that the Gaiden mission has a fixed turncount though, because it gives me a chance to increase the levels of my characters without worrying about whether I'm blazing through the chapter fast enough.



This is where Marcus' usefulness starts to falter, as I believe he failed to kill a few enemies on this chapter.



Despite a somewhat iffy accuracy, Rebecca ends up snuffing out one of the bandits while Eliwood kills his mate.



This mission is quite the pain with only a few characters. I send Hector down to stop the bandits and the occasional nomad of all things (this isn't anywhere near Sacae), and Marcus to the left to kill the few enemies there before heading up to assist Eliwood and Rebecca. I give Marcus a vulnerary because he took quite a bit of damage on the first few turns.



While I could let Marcus kill the Nomad, the timed nature of this chapter (by which I mean, the set amount of turns) means that I can afford to let my weaker units get a few kills. I'll hand this one over to Eliwood.



Ohh, nice critical (if a bit unnecessary).



Very nice level up! I may have to take back some of my previous insults towards Eliwood, he's getting some fantastic level ups in this playthrough.



Yay, more criticals! This one was actually a bit more helpful, too.



And Hector gets a superb level up as well!

Self-explanatory (well, I suppose you could say the same for many of these, but I have to write something down).



OK, not spectacular, but I can't complain about any level up that has a strength boost.



So here, I'm taking a somewhat risky gambit by letting Marcus weaken the boss so that Eliwood/Rebecca can take the kill and get some much needed EXP.



And Hector ends up being surrounded by numerous enemies, so I used a vulnerary to heal him up. Also I had to move everyone slightly up to keep out of the range of the nomad.



Eliwood gets lucky (again), while Hector kills all of the bandits and gets the first meh level of this chapter.



Eliwood proceeds to finish off some suicidal enemies while Hector dodges what would've been a mere bruise. Well, every dodge counts, I suppose.



On his turn, Eliwood finishes off the boss and gets a decent, but nowhere near great level up. So this chapter started out with a bang, but it's ending on a mediocre note.



At least this critical by Hector kind of makes up for it.

That Rebecca of yours sure looks tasty. She'll be an absolute beast, I'd wager.

To be fair, I gave her a Power Ring, but yeah, she's turning out amazing. This is wierd, because while I was aware of her being a pretty good character, I always used Wil because I grew kinda attached to the guy after playing Lyn mode.

13x counts as 8 turns. Just thought I'd once again clarify. Something to do with how the game counts fixed turn maps. It is easier if everyone were on the same page with this.

My bad, I got confused by this.

Yeah, killing the boss on maps like 13x still counts the extra turn, since it continues after the boss is dead. It is just easier to record the turn count the game records for fairness.

Chapter 13x: 8/25 turns

I did my usual and took a high risk approach to this map, since it is quite manageable in ENM. Eliwood is a surprisingly durable unit at this point, and he only fears the nomads catching him by surprise out of the Fog of War.



First thing's first, I take out that archer.



Second, to send everyone else south. The AI will always try and approach your units from the centre rather than going through the south of the map for some odd reason.



The mercenary chips away at Eliwood, but he returns the favour with this level up in addition.



Turn 2, and I bring Eliwood on this side so only the merc and bandit can reach him. Maximise combat with minimal damage is the approach here, and I tested his positioning many times until I got him through all 7 turns without dying.



Marcus takes out these southern enemies. Once they are clear, Lowen can drop Merlinus and block the forts, preventing further spawns and leaving Marcus free to visit the village.



This time, Eliwood moves to the south. While the bandits and nomads run away if damaged, mercenaries and myrmidons do not, so I'll need to prevent my undrafted units from being attacked. Lords are generally more tempting targets anyway.



Marcus has to knock the snag down to have a free approach north next turn.



Weapon level increase the first. Shouldn't take forever to get him to max sword rank at this rate.



Lowen and Merlinus can block the forts now. Eliwood may look to be in great danger, but he's a tough cookie.

Actually, that's not strictly true. He would have died on this enemy phase, had I not discovered he gets a Defence increase on this level up. Good thing I tested this.



A much appreciated cash increase, collected on turn 5.



You can see how close I was pushing it before using my first vulnerary. The RNs were with me for the first couple of turns, but the presence of the nomad forced me to go into defensive mode.



Getting hit by the bandit didn't help. That miss sure did though.



Marcus can assist in both making Eliwood's life easier, and at least getting some chip damage on the boss.



Only the nomad is left on the island, the rest of the enemies having either died or ran away. Eliwood gets some much needed Strength by clearing the field.



I don't believe that. Two double-misses from Marcus on those bandits. At least the nomad went down.



Speaking of nomads, this one will run away now that Eliwood has damaged him. Marcus discovers the boss...



... and amusingly criticals! That was unexpected.



This, however, was not.



Surrounded, but safe. Got a lot of levelling on my lord, let's hope it was all worth it. My first drafted unit appears next chapter, which will help lighten the load.

Chapter 14: 7/32 turns

More high risk maneuvers here. I should have played things a little safer due to the rain slowing things down anyway, but oh well.



Serra's job is to recruit Erk. Eliwood will clear out the cavaliers near the start, then head south and west to take out the pirates, and the armour near Priscilla's village.



Marcus will be doing the bulk of the combat, of course.

On the enemy phase, Eliwood gets hit by 2 cavaliers, and dodges the one with a javelin. Rapier is starting to look dangerously low in uses, I'll have to ease off in its use from now on.



New recruit is Erk. He'll take a vulnerary from Serra, and stay put.



Killing the javelin cavalin yields another point of Strength.



Gods bless that critical boost from Thunder. Erk makes himself immediately useful with his first kill.



Healing time, methinks. Notice Eliwood has taken the Steel Sword from Marcus, I can save some Rapier use by having something with a bit more punch.



Run away! Erk and Serra retreat as much as they can, but those cavs will still reach.



Killing Erik ASAP is key to low turning this map, since it prevents further enemies from spawning.



Not completely worthless, that Defence boost is always appreciated. Marcus manages to chop up every enemy nearby except the archer, and got his Axe rank to A in the process.



My risky strategy relies on Erk dodging one of the two hits he'll be the target of here.



What a beautiful sight.



Here comes the rain. Eliwood could reach that armour a turn sooner were it not for this. Heck, even Marcus could probably manage it too.



Final cavalier meets Thunder. Good start I guess, he'll be doubling things in no time. I hope.



Eliwood may as well do some shopping while he's here. Bought some Fire tomes for Erk, and a few more vulneraries.



Final turn count. The armour was able to reach Eliwood on the enemy phase, and met his end on the point of a Rapier.

Damn, you're already 5 turns ahead of me (not counting Chapter 14, in which I took...more than 7 turns). If you don't horribly screw up in one of the later chapters, you've probably already beaten me.

All right, I finished 13. The writeup may take some time, and I may just wait for me to do 13x, but let's just say my strategy worked!

I lack one of the more important tools in a low turn playthrough - the ability to use Warp. Even if I promote Erk at the earliest point, I'll not be able to get his Staff rank high enough to use it by the time it comes around, which will hurt some of my later chapters. Plus, I may make mistakes, I'm still new at this sort of thing myself. Don't worry about the turn difference so much now, if nothing else you can consider it a personal challenge to see how well you can do.

Until Pent, will anyone have the ability to use Warp? It's kind of hard to level up Staves in a low turn playthrough.

Random tidbit- Warp was not useable in Lunatic mode of FE12, so I guess even the developers caught on to how broken it is.

Units Available: Eliwood (Lord Lv 4), Marcus (Paladin Lv 2), Dorcas (Fighter Lv 5), Oswin (Knight Lv 10), Matthew (Thief Lv 2), Guy (Myrmidon Lv 3)
Turn Count: 8 (Total turns: 27)

The first defense-type mission, and it's a very easy one; I have no less than six usable units, after all. The challenge is to achieve the side-objectives i.e 1) Kill Puzon the boss, 2) Visit the village for 10,000 gold, and 3) get as much experience as possible. Due to a miscalculation during the process, I only managed two of them. Ah well.



The general strategy is to have Eliwood block the bridge to the left, while Dorcas and Marcus block the upper bridges. When Oswin (annoyingly, starting up on the south) catches up, he'll take Marcus' position while I send the Paladin to the northeast village. Guy and Matthew are positioned on the southeast to deal with some Brigands coming from there. Lowen took Merlinus into his bosom, just to be safe.



Dorcas and Oswin started dealing with enemies, and Dorcas got a level-up. Strength + Speed gains are always nice, but now I'm worried about that 4 Defense of him. For a unit who constantly get into direct combat and doesn't have much Speed, that lackluster durability is a major problem. On a more positive note, Oswin can totally one-hit-kill those Myrmidons. No one in this map can scratch him, really.



Our sword-fighters were doing pretty well. Guy is practically invincible against axe-users, and he got a great Strength gain from that level-up. Matthew also managed to get a couple of kills, although his level-up is expectedly less than exciting. Eliwood did have to drink a Vulnerary due to a Brigand somehow hitting him twice, but in general he held his ground easily and gain another level-up. A Strength gain would be appreciated, but I won't complain about how he can't stop gaining Defense points.



Okay, in Turn 4, I should've already advanced toward Puzon with Oswin and Marcus, but I didn't count on Dorcas keep being hit for major damage (he even had to drink Vulnerary twice just to keep hanging there). Plus, there's an annoying Nomad who kept evading my attacks. Therefore, I had to waste a couple of turns securing the perimeter from enemies, so that the undrafted units won't be attacked. Well, Marcus at least got that 10,000 gold, and gain a totally-expected-from-Marcus kind of level-up. Oswin, however, got the first terrible level-up in this play.



So, this is how it looks by the end of Turn 8. I failed to kill Puzon (in a hindsight, I should've sent Dorcas to the village instead of Marcus), but I'm reasonably satisfied with the level-ups. Besides, I don't really want to restart a map unless something bad really happened i.e someone's killed or a penalty occured. I'd rather adjust my strategy mid-way if something don't go as planned. Okay, False Friends next!

By the way, I just want to point this out:



Are they even the same person?

Chapter 15: 5/37 turns



Sain (not pictured) and Florina join me, and now I start to feel like I have an army. She will be invaluable, not necessarily for her combat, but for flying utility.



I have the Caelin squad pick up some fresh weapons. Kent can take that Iron Lance to Sain - he needs the accuracy badly.



Where's Marcus? Why, Florina is carrying him of course. If I had a unit other than Florina that could pick him up, then Florina could drop him on the same turn, although that's a much more risky maneuver for her.



I want Sain to pick up as much combat as he can reach here, since he won't be aiding in the seize. The village isn't a necessity by any means.



Florina makes herself more useful, by blocking off a bandit that would spawn on her location. Means less worry for Merlinus and Erk, who will be staying behind.



Sain nets his first level up. Quite typical from him, but no complaints.



While Erk is only 3HKOed by this mercenary, I need to use a vulnerary now for the upcoming enemy phase. The merc dodged Erk's first counter, annoyingly.



See the cavalier below Florina? He finds Erk a more tempting target than her with his Javelin, for some reason. It wouldn't matter so much, since Florina could survive the enemy phase if he'd attacked her instead.



Anyway, the important thing is that Florina can hand Eliwood to Marcus. He can take him and still move towards the boss.



Sain is still hard at work down south.

Marcus chucks a hand axe around. Since he's weighed down by Eliwood, he doesn't double any of his attackers, but he does hit the mage and archer, so they will leave Eliwood alone when he is dropped next turn.



Marcus gets ready for the boss kill with an Iron Axe. Even with Steel he'd fail to 2HKO, so I'd rather go for the most accurate option.



Erk doubled the javelin cavalier, leaving it for Florina to get her first spoonfed kill. He finishes the mercenary off.



And Sain gets rid of the enemy thief, improving his hit rate further.



Finishing off the boss gives Marcus another jeigan-like boost of terribleness.



Last thing before I seize is to get some extra exp from chipping away at enemies. It does help if you hit of course, but the terrain bonus to avoid from mountains are annoying.



Flo's Slim Lance proves more accurate on this mage.



Since Sain cannot reach any combat this turn, he may as well grab the Heavy Spear.



And that's it for this chapter.

Serra, Priscilla and Lucius (with an early promotion) will be able to manage it quite safely by the time Warp comes around. There's a secret shop that sells spammable staves, and it is a good idea to burn though Mend instead of Heal, and later Barrier and Torch to get the rank up fast enough, since stronger weapons give more weapon exp. You'll want to use a staff on every turn if you can, or even twice with Ninils support

This might be the best level up I've ever seen Dorcas get.

Yeah, Dorcas generally got pretty good level-ups for this play...save for one glaring exception.

Eliwood's DEF (Lv 5): 9
Guy's DEF (Lv 4): 5
Dorcas' DEF (Lv 6): 4

lol wtf

Better give all your Dragonshields and Speedwings to him.