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Chapter 10: Oh god they're everywhere NO Innes stop running at the soldier fuck this goddamn ranger and fucking hell falcoknights too and are you shitting me he can double Josh fuck this shitty romhack and all its bullshit

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*ahem*

Chapter 10: In which my whiskey bottle runneth empty

This update is brought to you by no less than 11 scrapped recordings and ~15 load states, including one that required me to restart the entire chapter.



Our first order of business today is to talk about magical promotions. Under normal circumstances, Mage Knight is the way to go with Lute Nino. She really needs the extra point of Con, and a horse is icing on the cake. You do give up Light magic (which is useless if you're not a Bishop), and the higher magic cap, but 25 is more than sufficient for the base game, and it won't take her long to hit it.



Sages, on the other hand, don't really really have a whole lot going for them in Lute's case. She only gets 1 Con, which graduates her to "able to hold Fire without an AS penalty" territory, and she's generally not going to hit the Mage Knight's speed or skill cap, making the Sage's even higher caps useless. Plus light magic is universally worthless unless you absolutely have to have the weapon triangle advantage over shamans. Fortunately, we're not in Vanilla FE8.



So yeah, promotion gains not so hot. The defense is nice, but she doesn't get any speed and her skill could use some work too.



What, what?



Yes, not content with making Bishops irrelevant by giving the other magic classes tomes that are effective against monsters, our author decided that we really don't need Druids either. Assuming they have the Con for it (Well hello Erk, how are you? smile: Sages have better caps in pretty much every stat that matters than every other magic class and can use all their weapons. Instantly, as soon they're promoted. No, this is not game-breaking in the slightest. If I were simply playing on my own, I'd make everyone a sage, but for the sake of the LP I will eventually be showing off the other branches of the magic tree, because there have been some awfully silly changes to some of them.



So...this chapter. This chapter gave me fits for the longest time, because it comes right at that point where you're ready to promote but can't. For all intents and purposes, Josh and Guy are capped at 18 speed, and Lyn at 15 unless I want to burn Killing Edge/Shamshir uses, and...well, you'll see, but the point is that just isn't going to cut it anymore. Chapter 9 was hard because they expected you to get villages and run past one super-strong enemy that would fuck your day up. Chapter 10 just throws wave after wave of ~20 speed enemies at you.





First up, Innes, Gerik, Marisa, and Ninian Tethys. Gerik in particular is about as close to coming pre-maxed as possible, so after some very minor efforts in our next trip to the tower, he'll be ready to promote.





We continue to inch closer to max strength soldiers and max everything mercs. Seriously, these guys are colossal assholes and easily the worst part of midgame.



Right, so let's get started. Forde, Josh, and Lyn are the front line, with Seth out to get things started. Tana and Vanessa are sneaking down the left side to meet up with Innes.



I think the first turn went pretty well, yes it did.



The only reinforcements for the first few turns are a pair of brigands that spawn up in the mountains. I have no idea why they chose brigands of all things, because there are absolutely no villages on this map.



So forward progress: This guy's AI is bugged and he won't move. Tana is completely safe in running up to gut the guy, because he'll take it and and let her pass harmlessly.



Eirika is very useful in picking off these low-HP kills. I can't double any of the mercs, so I need as many of my high-power units freed up as possible.



An unfortunate facet of how the chips fell this time is that I have to heal up Seth instead of having Nino kill the mage directly below her. She's by far the best offensive asset on the team right now, and every turn I have her not killing something is a waste in this opening rush.



A longshot from Neimi lets me sneak Erk down to heal up Josh.



Forde throws his Javelin to help out, and right about here is where I want these guys. They'll die on the counterattack, and let another one come in to get weakened. Counterkill chains will still fuck me over, but a couple of them dying off each turn is perfect.



As I said, counterkill chains are bad. Josh pulled a bullshit crit with his Steel Sword, and it ended up nearly killing him. Should have, actually - the first mage missed him.



Tana recruits Innes and they go through the whole recruitment chain. Really, Gerik is the only one that matters since he has my precious, precious Hero's Crest.



Nino joins up with Forde as the east wall. The south can get hairy, but Innes and Gerik can pretty easily handle it as long you give them the barest minimum of support. Up here is where you see how the hack hates you. If you're asking why the hell I'm using Nino as a physical wall, I also fed her a Dragonshield use, so she's up to 14 Def. Add in an Angelic Robe and she's just as capable as the rest of the team.



Lyn sneaks a fantastic level out of killing a merc.



Forde starts the next turn with a not-so-fantastic one.



With a little help from Ninian, Innes kills of the pair of soldiers harassing us up close, and Gerik gets to work in plugging the gap.



Meanwhile, Seth grabs Erk and starts heading south to join Innes and friends.



We form up like so. You don't want to move to the square directly in front of Josh, because that opens you up to be being attacked at range from two extra tiles. Considering there's an archer, a soldier with a javelin, and a couple hand axe bandits floating around, that's a bad thing.



The turn order works to my advantage here. These bandits are higher up, so they block the archer and soldier from being able to attack Josh. Forde is out of range, so what's left?



Suiciding right into Nino.



After picking off the merc, we're mostly left with a bunch of brigands. Of my 11 scrapped recordings, 9 of them ended at or before this point.



aaaaaaaaagh Slim Lance and your fucking 5 crit



Fortunately, the AI demonstrates its usual spectacular grouping ability and blocks the archer from being able to approach, leaving only the brigand to futilely attempt a kill.



And you! This fucker right here cost me a run when he decided to put Gerik to sleep when Marisa was right in front of him, so I just cut my losses and end the recording on the spot. I wasn't going to attempt to keep her stupid ass alive for 5 turns.



Neimi gets a shit level from a chip shot against the bandit.



Gerik retreats and Seth takes the line. Marisa always moves first among the south enemies, so she'll come in to attack Seth and Gerik can recruit her next turn.



Can it be? Do we finally have peace up top?



For what I'm using him for, I guess this is about as perfect of a level I can ask for.



In episode number god-only-knows of misguided AI priority, the archer hops in the ballista and attacks Gerik. Those poor pegasus riders apparently aren't worth the bolt, despite that it would probably kill or come very close to doing so.



Tana and Priscilla personally thank him for the consideration.



Gerik recruits Marisa, and Neimi and Innes continue to take shots at the myrmidons from behind the wall.



Have I metioned that Josh is the best lately?





These reinforcements look worse than they are - the only ones you really need to watch out for are the cavs/ranger. Naturally they'll be rushing our myrms/Eirika, because we can't have nice things ever.



The falcoknight really isn't too much of a problem. She's using a Steel Lance, which drops her scary 22 speed to a much more managable 15, and even if it didn't, she'll be in range of Innes with a dancer next turn.



Erk gets a fantastic level by patching up Marisa as we slightly pull back to bait the peg squad.



In the south, the cavs are nothing to write home about, but this? This guy will fuck your day up. He has a Steel Bow with no AS penalty, putting him at 34 Atk, 23 AS. If you don't have at least 19 AS, you will be doubled, and as far as everyone in the north is concerned, you will be killed. The only people capable of this are Josh/Guy with a Killing Edge, Lyn with a Shamshir, and Eirika with her Rapier. If I switch to their Steel Swords, they all fall under 19 AS, which means they're fucked.



So remember how Pegasi are "monsters"? We take full advantage of it to neuter the north threat.



Hello, ladies. Between Innes, Neimi, and a little dancing, the peg knights are absolutely destroyed.



Guy picks up a functionally empty level in dealing with the bandis.



So here's where things get a little weird. Forde can't hold the line because he'll be doubled and two-shotted by the ranger no matter what, so it has to be Eirika and Josh.



Josh can attack and (hopefully) crit this guy, getting him out of our hair. This leaves the second cavalier and the ranger. Both Josh and Eirika will die if they get hit by both attacks, and the ranger is going to follow up whoever the cavalier attacks.



Josh gets his crit, but he took a hit in the process. With Natasha now in the line of fire, if the cavalier attacks Eirika, I lose regardless. Fortunately, she has 1 more point of defense than Josh, so the game's not over before it even begins. Here's how this can go down:

1) The cavalier hits Josh - Regardless of what Josh does to the cavalier, the Ranger attacks Josh. A hit means Josh dies, we lose. If the ranger misses, we continue on.

2) The cavalier misses, Josh retaliates with a crit - With the cavalier dead, nothing is blocking the ranger from getting in Josh's face. Natasha dies, we lose.

3) The cavalier misses, Josh misses/doesn't crit/whatever - The ideal scenario. The ranger has no one he can attack and kill, and we swarm them next turn. No possibility of failure barring a bullshit crit.

4) The ranger misses his attack. Provided we're not in scenario 2 (due to the ranger doubling Natasha), this is another no-fail possibility.



While that's all going on, Marisa gets a really bad level.



Welp, that's Option 1. Cross your fingers, kids.



FFFFFFFFFFFFFFF-



Okay, okay, nothing happened. Everything is wonderful.



Another bad level for Natasha.







I always appreciate higher defense.



I sent in Forde with a Steel Lance, so obviously the merc inside the gate is using a Lancereaver. The bandit doesn't help.



After a round of stupidity, Neimi brings down the merc and claims his Lancereaver.







And Tana picks up the final kill. Time for Pablo.



+5 HP, +5 Mag, +4 Skill, +4 Speed, +1 Luck, +5 Def, +4 Res

Pablo's a lot less dangerous than he looks simply because almost all our units worth a damn can double him. Sure, Divine hurts, but you have to be in pretty bad shape to not walk out the winner if both attacks land.



Nino starts things off, and she's backed up by Josh. Unfortunately, he misses his second hit.



He's not so lucky the second time around.



Oh, Gerik~~



Let's start with the boring option. Heroes are a new promotion in the hack - usually myrmidons can go Assassin/Swordmaster. At any rate, since Josh actually has myrmidon growths, Hero is a waste of his talent. Swordmaster has a much higher speed cap, and the Hero's strength cap is only 1 higher so it doesn't even have a good trade off.



But this? This is the money shot. Swordmasters have a beautiful 30 Speed cap, a free +15 Crit, and the best animations since Nomad Troopers are gone. Oh, they also have Assassinate. Technically speaking, so do male heroes (but not female ones smile:, but since it runs off crit, you might as well go with the class that gives you a passive crit bonus on top of it.



And that seems like a nice high note to end on. Next time: Something that won't give me an aneurysm.

...What's that? A monster map in Fog of War?

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Level 1 Sniper
Bows - A, Affinity - Ice
Equipment - Silver Bow, White Gem, Vulnerary

HP: 31 (+4) (75%)
Strength: 14 (+4) (40%)
Skill: 13 (+4) (40%)
Speed: 15 (+4) (45%)
Luck: 14 (45%)
Defense: 10 (+4) (20%)
Resistance: 9 (+4) (25%)
Con: 9

I will admit to being more fond of Innes than I really should be. He's a competent prepromote with good growths, he can easily take Neimi's spot, and I really like him as a character. It is unfortunate that he's a sniper, but our author has made sure that no class is without some retardedly powerful aspect, and has given snipers Assassinate too. If you're keeping track at home, that's now snipers, swordmasters, male heroes, and assassins that can all drop instant death on you at the drop of a hat. I guess I should mention that he still has Sure Strike (next attack is guaranteed to land) as well, but Sure Strike is still pretty fucking useless, so it's kind of a non-factor.



Level 10 Mercenary
Swords - C, Affinity - Thunder
Equipment - Steel Blade, Vulnerary, Hero's Crest

HP: 32 (+4) (90%)
Strength: 14 (+4) (45%)
Skill: 13 (+4) (40%)
Speed: 13 (+4) (30%)
Luck: 8 (30%)
Defense: 10 (+4) (35%)
Resistance: 4 (+4) (25%)
Con: 13

Oh hey, what's up Dieck? Gerik isn't quite as amazing as he looks at first glance. Aside from defense, his growths aren't really that impressive, and FE8 is full of units that are going to cap everything so it's not even like his high bases are that special - he's just there a few levels before the rest of the class. Far more importantly, Gerik comes with a Hero's Crest, meaning we can finally get over the hump of being stuck at 20 Speed when every enemy and their mother is also at 20 speed with more HP/Str/Def than us.



Level 1 Dancer
Affinity - Fire
Equipment - Vulnerary, Elixir, Goddess Icon

HP: 18 (+5) (85%)
Strength: 1 (+4) (5%)
Skill: 2 (+4) (10%)
Speed: 12 (+4) (70%)
Luck: 10 (80%)
Defense: 5 (+4) (30%)
Resistance: 4 (+4) (75%)
Con: 5

Ninian replaces Tethys, and there's not really much to say beyond that. She makes a hell of a dodge tank, can deal with magic without blinking, and she dances. That's it, that's all there really is to her. I guess I can add that pink Ninian looks awful, but I doubt you needed me to tell you that.



Level 5 Myrmidon
Swords - D, Affinity - Ice
Equipment - Shamshir, Vulnerary

HP: 23 (+12) (75%)
Strength: 7 (+6) (30%)
Skill: 12 (+4) (55%)
Speed: 13 (+4) (60%)
Luck: 9 (50%)
Defense: 4 (+8) (15%)
Resistance: 3 (+7) (25%)
Con: 5

Is it obvious that our author really like Swordmasters yet? Marisa has been given a ridiculous set of bonuses, but I still wouldn't use her. Don't get me wrong, she's a fantastic unit, but I'm already short a Hero's Crest if I want to promote all the awesome units I already have, and I have plenty of useful myrmidons. I'll probably end up putting her with Pent, Colm, and Lucius in the tower brigade, and if she ever makes it to L20 or caps a few things, I'll toss a Hero's Crest her way later.