Gaming I Don't Pick Fights I Can't Win: The Fire Emblem Series

Yeah, whenever someone died I always had the question of "Am I willing to lose them?" and the decision to restart would be based on that answer (and influenced by things such as near-last turn losses like the Chrom vs Mustache scenario I mentioned awhile back). I must have replayed the Exalt's execution level 3 or 4 times just to save Lucina, let alone the numerous others it took to keep the Pegasus knights alive and still ended up losing the then-new dragon girl.

So those situations were like "Well, I'd like to have seen what dragon girl can do, but Lucy and everyone else made it this time and I really don't want to play this map over again..."

 

After finishing Paralogue 17 (The Threat of Silence- the last non-Spotpass paralogue; apparently those final 6 SpotPass ones unlock after I finish Chapter 25 of the main quest) I'm more certain that I will go Casual for future titles after I finish FEA. There is no way anyone could get through that map on the first go without sustaining heavy casualties (unless you've grinded a lot), since you're looking at at least 4-5 waves (including the initial one) of 8-12 enemy fliers each.

It's not a difficult map, though- but if you don't charge that leader fast with someone while figuring out the right defensive formation around Tiki for the rest, you're probably not going to make it out without a few body bags. Especially since the waves like to go for attack lines on their target (Tiki), ganging up on whomever is in the way. Even Chrom was getting worn down eventually even though he was one-shoting them all. It's just a map of attrition and if you don't know the strategy right off the bat, you're kinda screwed.

(In their defense, they do say o forma wall of bodies around her, but it's unclear if you're waiting a certain number of turns for Tiki to finish, a certain number of waves or need to kill the boss to stop the waves, etc- and you'd lose valuable turns trying to figure that out)

I ended up making a 3/3/3 U formation around her, with an additional 4th corner character on the bottom right. I had mages in the top and bottom positions of the sides with swordsmen filling the middle and bottom line. Gave a good spread of attacks and healing while allowing the fighters to take the brunt of the attacks and allowing everyone to have at least one assisting character when fighting. Paired up a healer with Fredrick to charge the enemy leader with.

One thing I noticed here, and maybe it's just because i haven't used her that much, but Tharja's spell attack abilities fluctuate or deplete for some reason. She'll have normal spell attack values in some cases, but then I'll go to use her and most of her spells will have an attack/damage value of 0 or even just a 1 or 2. What conditions or gameplay mechanic causes that?

Chapter 19 of the main quest is up next 7 or 8 more to go.

 

Ah, so it's a stat on the enemy unit and not something with Tharja herself- that's what was throwing me off.

 

By tile type, you mean the overall setting versus specific locations (ie: having cover in trees, etc)?

 

I'll have to keep that in mind as I move towards this final stretch. I've experimented with pairing characters more but in this case I definitely needed the bodies and assist attacks to wall things up instead of the pairings. Though I did pair a healer with Fredrick in case the waves ignored their target and went after him (they didn't, thankfully) and used pairing and separate to shift Chrom next to a healer and back after all the enemy units kept making a run at him (really, Tiki) up the middle, without breaking my lines.

So, if trees cause those Resistance boosts, then that might be what I ran into- a flier coming into the tree ring around my wall of bodies and Tharja trying to strike from there.



(generic screenshot, not my actual game, just pointing out the tree ring in question)

 

Good to know. It was weird, though- like, I had 4 mages running (Tharja, Ricken, Henry and Robin) and Tharja was the only one who seemed to run into the Resistance boost. Maybe because the ones along the top of my formation rarely struck at range (usually at closer units) and Robin was one-shoting enemies with her more powerful wind attack, which left Tharja as the one most likely to engage near a line fo attack at range by the trees.

 

Don’t worry- there’s still a chance that I’ll figure out how to play this game before I beat it.

Whichever one makes murder fun, it's that one.

 

Didn't make as much progress as I had hoped- keep losing characters during attempts in Chapter 19 (too many enemies! Plus three waves of reinforcements!) and attempts at grinding to level up characters (some tough setups there) but did inch ever so slightly forward.

Also unlocked this amusing support exchange:

Lucina: "...Kjelle."
Kjelle: "Mmm?"
Lucina: "You know what I'm about to say, don't you?"
Kjelle: "...Be sure to wash Falchion after I'm finished cutting this apple?"
Lucina: "DON'T use Falchion to cut apples in the first place, you dolt!"

Going to keep leveling folks up and then try a new defensive formation approach (instead of a full ring in the center, will try a corner ring with healers at core, mages in middle and everyone else on the outside-yet-within-range-of-Fortify armed with anti-beast weapons) to hopefully survive the waves of enemies in 19.

 

There's definitely a trial by fire (...emblem. sorry)- as my question to Ramza the other week illustrated, I never personally had a need to learn what Res was until Chapter 19 (plus paralogues) and am only now looking at weapons that are particularly effective against specific unit types (outside of the standard weapon triangle, of course). Heck, I've played most of the game without even teaming up characters (mostly to either protect a vulnerable character from attack or to hide a powerful character from enemies suiciding themselves against them when i'm trying to level up other characters, lol) since i prefer the bonus assist attacks and extra turns not wasted on splitting off healers when i need them.

But I kinda like how the game doesn't force you to learn the deeper mechanics and leaves them there for you to discover when you run out of traditional options (though, of course, that runs counter to the permadeath mode since it invites repeat plays).

 

Res is Resistance (to magic).

Since I'm in what is essentially my first XP grind stretch of the (Awakening) game (trying to get everyone to be level 10 or more of their master class before i take another crack at Chapter 19, so I'm using a lot of Reeking Boxes on the world map to summon cannon fodder so I can easily win the grinding battles without using any heavy hitters or dedicated healers on my team), I've been looking at the relationship stats more even though I'm already past the kids, so actually pairing certain characters has been something I've begun to use more intentionally beyond battlefield necessity (all the relationships advances I've gotten in the game have just come from battle assist and Barracks chatter events).

 

FYI- Preorders for the FETH: Warfare Edition went live at 3pm EST at Gamestop.

 

In between E3 conferences and streams this year (and this weekend during a heavily-delayed train ride) I've returned to my XP grind and set the new goal of leveling 15 characters up to 15. Operation 1515. Same strategy as before, using Reeking Boxes (on a location that sells Reeking Boxes)- but now I can have a single character (or one paired with a healer for luck bonuses and such) take on the entire map without getting a scratch on them. Been effective at getting folks up those later 3-4 levels seemingly quicker, and avoids situations where the enemy forces would just commit Lucinacide and deny my lesser units their XP.

So, with only 2-3 characters left to go, I'll then re-equip everyone with beast killers and wind attacks and hopefully, finally, conquer that damn Chapter 19 and move onto the last few chapters of the game.

On the upside, all my leveling up unlocked another Paralogue Chapter too, so I'll options moving forward as well. I really want to try and finish this one before my pre-order of Three Houses arrives this summer. I can circle back around to Fates and Echoes later (though I'll be playing those on easy mode, I think).

 

Alternatively: Meat grinder simulator.

They opened the Treehouse stream today with FETH. Now, maybe some of these details are carryovers from more recent games but some details that stood out compared to FEA:

-Larger, multi-space enemies (they showed a giant, 4 square, wolf creeping towards character you need to protect while engaging the other actual enemies in battle)

-You level up Battalions as well as characters.

-Even in Classic Mode, there's a rewind time feature you can choose to utilize to advance backwards turns so as to not have to replay entire battles due to a single mistake (useful for levels with win conditions such as a limited number of turns).

-Seems like there are some branching dialogue options, or at least binary options, during the academy sections of the game. Student areas of study are influenceable (you can encourage a student to pursue certain disciplines) but this can be automated as well for those that want to focus on story/combat more.