What Am I Doing To Myself? Let's Try and Play Fire Emblem: Thracia 776!

[Deme]

His movement range isn't particular, if I recall...

Also, hey. I hate sounding needy, but... If you like this LP, and are interested in its continuation, I need to hear from you.

I enjoy the game well enough, but doing something fairly arduous and time consuming for an audience of just Javan, regardless of how excellently loyal an audience Javan is, is just not a good use of my time and energy. It just will not cut it.

[Illven]

I like it.

But I've never played Fe 5 before.

So my advice will be Illven typical.

Deploy all the magic users first.

[Deme]

Heck, I've never played FE5 before, but here I am. Just vote for who you'd like to see me use: it's my job to try and make it work.

[Pseudo_Nym]

I enjoy the game well enough, but doing something fairly arduous and time consuming for an audience of just Javan, regardless of how excellently loyal an audience Javan is, is just not a good use of my time and energy. It just will not cut it.

Quality, Deme, not quantity! You just can't ask for a better audience than Javan. When your Let's Plays lead to international fame and three book deals, you're going to look out on your legions of adoring fans and whisper coldly, "It's no Javan." And then you will weep bitter, artistic tears into your mocha frappachino con latte and ask where your life has led. Other than to international fame and three book deals.

I'll vote for Karin, Shiva, Nanna, Othin, and Marty. You clearly need to use Marty more.

[Deme]

Quality, Deme, not quantity! You just can't ask for a better audience than Javan. When your Let's Plays lead to international fame and three book deals, you're going to look out on your legions of adoring fans and whisper coldly, "It's no Javan." And then you will weep bitter, artistic tears into your mocha frappachino con latte and ask where your life has led. Other than to international fame and three book deals.

Don't be silly, that'd never happen! ...I hate the taste of coffee.
Anyway, there's no reason to believe Javan wouldn't buy a book of mine, so it's not like I have to choose. Or am really able to.

[Javan]

Don't be silly, that'd never happen! ...I hate the taste of coffee.
Anyway, there's no reason to believe Javan wouldn't buy a book of mine, so it's not like I have to choose. Or am really able to.

I would probably buy a book...

[Sheep Overlord]

I'd like to see Shiva, but I'm not very particular otherwise. :)

[CoffeeIncluded]

I'm sorry!

Shiva would be good, and Karin for sure. Maybe Fin, or...who else has high move? At least one other person with high move. Asvel for sure and whichever healer you want.

[ShinyRocks]

I'm enjoying this; I enjoy all your LPs. I haven't had a lot to say.

I'd like to see more Nanna. I want her to get some good levels. Maybe give her Sety scroll?

And maybe Karin.

That's about all I've got...

[malmo]

His movement range isn't particular, if I recall...

Also, hey. I hate sounding needy, but... If you like this LP, and are interested in its continuation, I need to hear from you.

I enjoy the game well enough, but doing something fairly arduous and time consuming for an audience of just Javan, regardless of how excellently loyal an audience Javan is, is just not a good use of my time and energy. It just will not cut it.

There is at least one lurker on this forum who is thoroughly enjoying this LP. Just so you know.

I've never played FE before so I can't really participate in voting, etc. but I am reading.

[Deme]

Woo! It looks like people are actually reading this! What a relief!
It also looks like there's enough votes that I maybe, just maybe, will be able to put a team of y'all's choosing together.

And for people saying they don't know the game or the series...I wouldn't sweat it. If I can't make your ideas work, we'll all learn some valuable lessons and I'll try some different ideas. If you want more information or recommendations on characters besides their stat sheets or character analysis, just ask.

[Unisock]

Well I suppose I could attempt to contribute. I'd vote Karen, Tanya, Othin, Havan, and Finn.

Its been a long time since I've tried to play FE5, and I'm almost positive you've already gotten farther than I ever did, so I don't think I'll be much help with the voting.

[Deme]

All votes are helpful with the votes!

Anyway, so, I've been busy with Mardi Gras and all, so I've just got a little something at the moment. I'll be working on the rest of the chapter soon enough.

Chapter 9, Part 1: People Been Talkin'

Spoiler

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It's time for another good idea, bad idea:
Good idea: Playing Thracia 776 now that you have enough people to mount a vote, and you know you won't be able to work on it for a while.
Bad idea: Playing Thracia 776 with a fever.

Well, we don't know if it's a bad idea until I do it, right? Weee!


Pictured here, our crew for this map! I'd have preffered Safy to Nanna, honestly, because she's straight-up better at primary clericing duties and I'd like a good staff rank on her... Not to mention, she doesn't have nearly as many levels as I'd like...
But. That aside, we'll probably use her next map, and anyway, this is about you guys, the people. The Nanna-loving people. (This sounds almost like a swear, doesn't it?)

I've given all the scrolls to Carion, except the Sety Scroll, which stays by the party on request.

Let's rock.


A trio of dragon knights flies up into the mountains.

Aaaand one of them is Trabant, king of Thracia.

And with him his Altenna. Those new to this game who didn't play FE4 won't care about her, but she's a playable character in the second generation, wielder of the Gaelbolg and inheritor of major Nova blood. For those of you paying attention, that's the same holy bloodline Leaf has in a minor form, because the major blood his dad had was inherited by his older sister. His older sister Altenna.
She was kidnapped by Trabant when he murdered her parents in front of her when she was a toddler.
Awwwkward.

I think that, for the intended audience of this game, this was already common knowledge: this game is pretty light on exposition, because it assumes you've played 4 and remembered everyone.
As such, I'm telling you all of this so that you're roughly on their same page. When she calls him "father," it's kind of full of sad irony for the reader.



"Well, as king, I must be aware of any and all happenings in my country."

"I tried to get Arione to come along as well, but he said he couldn't leave the castle unattended."

Arione, if it's not clear enough, being Trabant's actual son, who he did not kidnap. It'd be sort of bizarre for him to have a family of kidnapped children raised as his own. He’s a character who should join the party, but does not due to complications, in FE4. You know the type: fans of the GBA games will remember the Black Fang boys, or that one Grado general in FE8 whose name escapes me, or… Look, there are a lot of these. It’s one of those archetypes the series loves. FE4 had two of them, at least!

In some ways, they're a nice little family. When you forget the details.

The fertile lands in the north, and the rich minerals in the south... Thracia needs both of these to rise up to independence and peace again. A unified Thracia... My wish is to rebuild Thracia into that prosperous nation that Dine and Nova created."

The essential Trabant, right here. He honestly gets more real characterization here (and in 4) than most main FE villains get in their entire lives.






Oh dear.

They fly off, and we go and see the folks at the mansion.

Who are boned.
"So, Trabant found out about us... Damn!"


""No, Selphina. According to General Hannibal, Lord Leaf is headed here with a band of fighters from Fiana and Manster."



This line has her speaking to a series of guys, who we'll see in a minute. They say nothing back.

They ride out around the mansion.


And we're not done talking.

Yes, Leaf. But they're DOOMED.


August is cynical. Actually, once we meet up with Dorias, I have a ramble about who he reminds me of.
"...Either way, we must help them. If that mansion is captured, there would be no hope left for Thracia's liberation or the reconstruction of Lenster..."


Alright, our set-up.

And our new guys. Let's have a look.


Rubbish. She wields bows and is rubbish. She’s got a decent bow in her killer bow, hurray? That’s…That’s it. That’s all. I sadly didn’t keep my screenshot of her stats – I’ll fix that in part 2. What should be noted is that she’s level 8, and worse in nearly all respects than some level 2 guys on her squad. Who aren’t treasures, either.
She has the same skill as Dagda, so she can't get out of combat. This may help ensure her one attack is a kill for sure, but... Nah. Not worth it.



These guys are both better than their boss... But also so woefully generic that I can think of nothing more to say about them.


Robert is the only one who may be vaguely usable, if you want a pure bow-user, he might be preferable to Tanya.
...You can probably do better from the units who will eventually use bows as well as other things. Like Fergus, for example.



Let's get rolling. Carion needs to get to Selphina on the double, so...All aboard the Karin express!


For attempt 1, let's try all going over the high road.
...So let's clear out some losers, first.



I hope you enjoyed your line. It’s the only one you have.


No you won't. There is no next time.
...Boy, how generic and meaningless a cavalier must you be when even I don't love you?


You haven't lost yet.

Selfina's staying; we have a use for her.


The enemy starts moving towards the mansion, as do we. Several turns pass.

Good news, everyone!
We finally dropped off Carion! Soon, death will come to our enemies, I hope!



I work out the range of those dragon knights, and give Asvel the Sety Scroll. He'll need it.
I also pull Nanna out of range after that, and everyone clusters away from looming death.


Let's do this.



So far, so good.
For the record, the reason Asvel has the Sety Scroll is so that way, those killer lances won't crit him to death.


...What does this dummy think he's doing? GET BACK HERE AND DIE IN A TORNADO!


...oookay. Showtime.




This just goes to show: the solution to all really scary problems is to hurl Asvel at them until they stop being scary.


+1 HP, +1 Skl
...Really, Asvel? Now you disapoint me? Aarg.


Well, anyway. Now we come to the end-goal of Karin's objectives. Have Carion talk to Selphina.



"Curse my powerlessness."

"Carion, don't rush. You'll only lose your life that way."



"Yes, you were still young when she died of sickness."




Heeheehee...HEE HEE HEE...MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Ok, let's talk about the weapon we just got.

As you can see, it's not specific to Carion (yay). It grants +5 Defense.
...AND THE ELITE SKILL. Doubling EXP.

It is a thing of beauty and glory, and with it, Carion's going to be catching up.
MWAHAHAHA!

(images)





Ooh, the Fala scroll.
Fala's the fire mage crusader, and the current heir of Fala's bloodline is the Emperor, Alvis. Neither of his children inherited that major blood, but there's a little more about that we'll talk about later. Just remind me.

Anyway, the Fala scroll is verra nice, offering +5 Magic, +5 Strength, +10 Skl, and +10 Spd. No downsides, just scroll.

We’re getting to actual action here:


Someone reaches somebody other than Asvel!

Ow, ow, ow.



Karin weakens this guy, which will hopefully be her only action this map. We need her for next time.



So Carion can start fighting.


OH, COME ON!

Oh, well. Anyway, Carion'll retreat to the mansion, for the extra...everything. HA, ENEMY ARMY! HOW YOU LIKE IT WHEN I'M THE ONE WITH THE EVASION AND DEFENSE? NOT SO GREAT, EH?




Stupid Leaf.


+1 Spd, +1 Luk
STUPID, STUPID LEAF.





Carion'll take on some enemies...


Karin will carry Selfina away, while I mourn the loss of my plan, since I was hoping for more rushing Carion.



Weee!



*giggling and clapping like a baby being shown shiny keys*

The enemies value their lives too much to attack Carion directly...





But everyone else, they're fine with.
I was rather hoping Carion not being high-leveled would help.


C'mon Othin...
+1 HP
Dangit.





Carion gets a level!
+1 HP, +1 Str, +1 Skl, +1 Spd
Ooh, nice! Strength, Speed, a little extra junk!


Leaf can talk to Selfina, too.



"Selfina, I'm the one who wants to start crying. I thought you and Dorias had been killed for my sake... I never thought I would see you again."

Awww...


*shrug* Your guess is as good as anyone's.
"We were able to meet again, so we'll see Lady Lachesis again, too."







Excellent.



Oh, I forgot about those jerks. That guy’s got, at the very least, a physic staff.

Well, at least the enemy's heal staff missed, too.



He's starting to double now. Nice.






Anyway, Selphina can talk to Fin, too.




We'll meet him later. Personally, I'd forgotten all about him.

"Where is he? I have to see him!"
"He's not here. He went to aid the people in Tahra."
"Oh, I see...Too bad."

It's almost like almost all of Fin's other friends are dead or something.
"You haven't changed at all...You were always cold towards women."

...Awkward.



Reeaaaallly awkward.
"We finally meet again, and I can't do anything but shout at you..."
Well, that was gloomy.



Fin misses.

And, I do one last vital thing: I put Carrion the block above the mansion’s entrance. Come get some!
...Before we see how my gambit plays out, let's call it an update. 100-something screenshots is enough, and production of this will likely was – Future Deme delayed enough as is.

[Illven]

Glen is the guy you were thinking of.

[Deme]

Glen is the guy you were thinking of.

Yes, but also no.
I was actually thinking of Selena, but Glen is also an example. See? They're all over the place.

[Deme]

Chapter 9, Part 2: A True Knight of Lenster Emerges

Spoiler

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Well, now, where were we?

Oh, yeah, Nanna was getting a kill. I guess.


And enemies attacking Carion means levels!

+1 HP, +1 Str, +1 Mgc, +1 Skl, +1 Spd, +1 Luk, +1 Bld
WOOO-OOOOH! Good boy, Carion! That's one stat away from a perfect level there.


A double and a crit. Verrah nice.



+2 HP, +1 Str, +1 Skl, +1 Spd, +1 Def
Destroy, my knight. Destroy!





Great progress was made this turn.



Look, up in the sky! It's a bird, it's a plane, it's super-Fin!


May as well try to capture this guy.

Drat. Well, it's not like he'll live either way.



Leaf contributes!


Ah, the special magic...Of us having a Physic-wielding jerk, too.

How's it feel when the guy you were trying to kill gets healed from across the map, huh, enemies? How is it? Because I'll tell you something.
I think it feels fantastic.


We send Karin shopping for something to do, and pick up some steel lances.


I consider taking Carion off the Elite Sword...But I figure it's still got plenty of uses, and I'd like to at least catch him up with Othin, you know?



We'll be seeing some more even combat now that we're coming out of the mountains...


But Carion'll probably still be doing the most.


+2 Hp, +1 Skl, +1 Luk, +1 Def
Because he knows he knows how to make me happy. You get that double-HP, boy. You do it.


+1 HP, +1 Spd, +1 Def
...Well, most of the time, he knows how to make me happy. It's got speed, anyway.



Some guys run onto Shiva's sword.



This is with the Iron Sword, now.

The soldier's attack went 'ting.' This is without the defense boost. I...I feel like something wonderful is happening.



Curse you, weapon triangle!


Our troops begin pushing South. I don't think there will be reinforcements to ruin my day, but you never know, so Selfina's staying up here.
It's not like I care about her.


Nanna level!
+1 Luk, +1 Def
...*sigh*


Pictured: A Jerk with a Meteor Tome.
I'm planning on stalling during the approach with Shiva + Fire Sword and Karin, who, as a pegasaus knight, has high magic, and thus, strong defenses against magic.

But that ends up not happening. Don't know why, but he neither moves nor attacks -- I'm guessing he won't move until his buddies move, or attack until his buddies attack. Or something.



I'm not sure why, but Leaf here goes critical nuts. I think being near Fin and Nanna is driving his critical rate up with supports, and his PCC is pretty good, too.




Fin, fetch me this enemy. I want his stuff.



+1 HP, +1 Skil, +1 Luk, +1 Def
...Excellent. Welll, not the level. The level was just pretty decent.
Of course, now we want him out of here.






Leaf and Nanna help by handily clearing the field.



And Othin teases me. So close, and yet so far away!
Well, the level's all but done, so we can fix that.


Between Leaf and Shiva, we get all of the guy's stuff.

Before we begin arena-grinding, let's visit the last house. It'll be tidier editing that way.

"When you feel tired or overworked, just drink one of these. You'll be up and running in no time. If your troops are too tired to go on the battlefield, you can give them these S Drinks, and they'll be fine."
Stop doing my job explaining things and gimmee.

"Here, I'll give you one as a sample. Tahra's the only place close by that sells S Drinks, so you'd better buy as many as you can."


Ok, like he was saying, an S Drink cures Fatigue....That's it, really. If a unit is fatigued, you can give them an S, or Stamina, Drink, and they'll be good to go. It's a good thing to have around when a unit you need now or a favorite healer or the like is fatigued.
We'll see when we want to use this later.


We can also buy some at the shop, which I will consider getting a couple with my arena money.


He's Carion's before-Arena picture...

And Nanna's, too.


I was about to comment on the unfairness of Carion's first match, but then he proved me wrong.
I was also not going to comment on the levels, but then he gets a level with everything but Magic. Everything. I love Carion and I love Scrolls. That's all.


Filling up on Stamina Drinks -- Fin buys 2 here, Leaf and Carrion 1 later; I'm confident we'll make it back.


Sometimes I think the game is really confident in Carion's ability to kill things. But then I realize it's not mis-placed at all, and he took exactly 0 damage from this guy.
In fact, by the end of his arena run, the usual enemy for him there was level 19, with nothing less than silver. I was starting to expect promoted enemies, come to that.

That's because, by the end of his run...
Carion looked like this.

Across 7 Levels:
+7 HP, +6 Strength, +1 Magic, +5 Skill, +6 Speed, + 3 Luck, +5 Defense, +6 Build

The scrolls helped a lot, but even still... Daaaang, son. I'm honestly a little frightened right now. What have we wrought, I ask you? What have we done?
...Whatever it is, I wish everyone could have it.

I also decide to send Othin, and hope he'll do as well.

Othin before Arena. He doesn't do as well as Carion in terms of fighting -- by which I mean, if I kept my reset counter for the arena, it'd have gone up. Othin takes damage.

Across 5 levels:
+ 5 HP, +1 Str, +1 Mgc, +3 Skl, +3 Spd, +1 Luk, +1 Def, +1 Bld
Othin after.
Not nearly as impressive. I'm not sure why he stopped gaining strength, but boy howdy, he did. He's well ahead in speed, but badly behind in Luck...But mostly, it doesn't matter too much on Othin, whose selling points are non-stat things.

Things are going well enough, and I'm full of Stamina Drinks and vigor, so I pop in Karin for a level. It's only going to bring her to 4 Fatigue, so why not?


+1 HP, +1 Str, +1 Bld
Given that she's capped two stats, I'm not surprised. This is pretty nice, though!

I also pop Leaf in.

+1 HP, +1 Skl, +1 Def
Oh, Leaf. Well, Defense isn't bad.

And last but not least...

Nanna afterwards. She's our highest-level unit, not counting Asvel and his early promotion.
Across 3 Levels:
+2 HP, + 2 Str, +2 Mag, +3 Skl, +3 Spd, +2 Luk, +1 Def, +1 Bld
Oh, hey, she capped Skill. And actually gained points in magic! I'm hoping we'll raise up our other healer for a while, see what she can do...But Nanna turned out nice.


Anyway, time to bring the stragglers home.

Man, what's there to forgive?


Lady, we've been lingering for, like, 20 turns.
We'll linger as long as we want!

Actually, no, we're leaving now! To the post-chapter!


"Well... It looks like I've become easier sent to tears with my age."
"No, you're still young... !!"


What his sprite does not show is that he's lost his right arm basically up to the shoulder. Just an empty sleeve flapping dramatically in the breeze..
There's literally no way for that to not be as bad as it looks.

"I was taken by surprise in battle at Alster. Embarassing, really."
"At Alster...So you were injured letting me escape..."


"More importantly, Lord Leaf, we must hurry if we are to go to Tahra. According to Glade's letters, the Empire is about to lead a full-scale attack. Now that we have gathered the heroes under the flag of Nova, let us be off. Let us fly the flag of the New Kingdom of Lenster and liberate Northern Thracia!"
Woooh! That certainly sounds like we've got a long road ahead of us, even if he makes it sound like we're going to be big darn heroes.

"First of all, we have to deal with the soldiers stationed outside."
No, we don't. They're dead.


Because we....Oh, nevermind. Let's just pretend there are troops somewhere near, but far away enough not to be of immediate tactical purpose somehow. It goes better this way.



They heard stories of what Carion has become: "In a single battle, armed with his father's sword, he became the most fiercesome of warriors, as merciless as he is deadly, his steed snorting steam from its nostrils," and so on.

"Hm? What's that... A Dragon Knight? She's saying something to the Thracian Army..."
Or, I guess, not.


...Does she have a megaphone or something?




Thanks, Hannibal.


Well, with that moment's reprieve...
ONWARD!
The next chapter's going to be annoying...

New Folks (remember them?)

Spoiler

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I never did get a picture of Selfina's base stats, so let's have a look-see. With her growths, too.

HP: 50
Str: 25
Mag: 10
Skl: 40
Spd: 35
Luk: 55
Def: 15
Bld: 10
Mov: 1
PCC: 1

...Get out. I...I have nothing more to say, but now must find words to say all of that nothing. Let's start with the fact that she's a primary bow-user. "Well, that's tolerable, if the unit's good," you say. I request you look at the numbers again. Done?
Right. Second, there's a guy who enters with the same class, comparable stats (he can lift bows better, for one bonus), better growths pretty much across the board, and 7 more levels to overtake her in...And we got him the exact same map as we got her in.
She's obsolete the moment she hits the stage.
NEXT.

Kein:
HP: 75
Str: 55
Mag: 5
Skl: 45
Spd: 30
Luk: 50
Def: 35
Bld: 30
Mov: 1
PCC: 1

Uh....Who's this guy, again? Oh, yeah. One of Selphina's goons who get no actual lines ever. He's actually not bad growth-rate-wise. He could be a truly viable unit if you trained him up, and if you weren't factoring in the Brave Lance, would probably be better than Fin in terms of raw stats.
But he's slow to start rolling due to his low level, and he's in a role we don't have some tremendous aching need for. His PCC's just barely not non-existence, and there's nothing that recommends him outside of his growths. I'm probably going to forget he exists.

Alba
HP: 70
Str: 40
Mag: 10
Skl: 45
Spd: 50
Luk: 65
Def: 30
Bld: 25
Mov: 1
PCC: 1

And then there's the other guy who's totally generic and low-leveled! Hi, other guy! Alba's faster and weaker than Kein; if they were colored correctly and not in all aspects forgettable, I'd think they might be a red and green cavalier duo. They're not, though. I'd prefer Kein to him, but, really, everything I said about Kein applies equally to them both: they'd have been worth considering seriously if we'd gotten to them sooner, and there was time or reason enough to pick them up from the gutter. Never A+, but...Passable, at least.

Robert
HP: 65
Str: 45
Mag: 10
Skl: 50
Spd: 60
Luk: 70
Def: 25
Bld: 20
Mov: 1
PCC: 3

Well, if you want a bow-user...Here we are. This is your best shot of getting an actually good guy who mainly uses bows out of this game. His growths are nice, he's got a PCC that makes up some lacking, unlike Tanya and Selfina, he has the ability to actually lift a bow once and a while. There are a couple of opportunities to get bows onto other characters, but for 100% bows, 100% of the time, Robert's your best bet. If there's the time and exp needed to baby him up to a usable level, anyway.

[CoffeeIncluded]

Carion is absolutely fantastic, even if I have no clue how to pronounce his name (Carry-on, or Ka-rye-on?). And when you said everything, did you mean movement too?

[Deme]

I personally pronounce it like the word. Anyway, sadly, not that much "everything." I barely even count movement as a real level-up stat.

[Javan]

Those were really nice levels by Carion compared to what we have been seeing.

Does bow-user Robert ever get any lines? Would he be more a pain, or interesting to use?

[Deme]

Part of it was he was scrolled-up. Part of it was good growths. Part of it was luck.
All of it was fabulous.

And no, he does not get any lines. Of the characters we got this chapter, Selfina's the only one who talks -- she'll even get a conversation later down the line, too.
As for whether or not he'd be a pain...Well, yes. There's a good base there, but he needs a lot of babying. There's some opportunity for it coming up -- there's an arena in the next map, or at least what looks like an arena, so... *shrug* And, anyway, he can only get EXP on his turn, and that cuts down his growth.
As for whether he'd be interesting...Well, he's got a movement star, a decent PCC, and nothing else: so he'd play like Tanya, but on a horse. Except unlike Tanya, he's got the build to actually lift bows, so he's not suffering in his actual strength, his growths (and eventually) stats. I'm not enthralled, but if the audience wants me to give him a shot, I'd do it and not feel like you're trying to cause me pain.

[Javan]

Yeah that answers the question.

Mostly boring but with a bow.

Now I have to try and factor in the number of resets he will cause while you are babying him so I can vote for the right characters to win the reset guess prize. There will be a prize, right, right?

[The-Mage-King]

Oh, hey. This is updating again. Good to see.

[ShinyRocks]

Go Carion!

Nanna, I am disappoint.

[Deme]

Yeah that answers the question.

Mostly boring but with a bow.

Now I have to try and factor in the number of resets he will cause while you are babying him so I can vote for the right characters to win the reset guess prize. There will be a prize, right, right?

Uh...Maybe? I'm not sure what that prize would be, but I'm sure we could think of something.

Go Carion!

Nanna, I am disappoint.

Oh, come now. Nanna's doing just fine for herself -- dead-on in Strength, ahead (sometimes massively) in HP, Skill, Magic, Defense, Build and Speed, a little behind in luck (because of the Hezul Scroll, this is true for, like, any unit on the army who's ever been scrolled). Nanna's about as good as Nanna gets, basically. If you're disappointed...It's because you forgot who Nanna is.
The thing is, Nanna's never going to be a powerhouse, either magically or physically. She's a support unit at heart, offering small healing and bonuses across the army, doing a bit of damage, and being mobile. Expecting her to replace, say, Safy as our primary staff-wielder is a bad idea on basically all possible levels (though Nanna's survivability is better that Safy's, I'll grant you that). I did tell you this when I laid out Nanna's growths...Which are pretty lousy in all of the stats she could use to hurt things.

Edit: Oh, I have updated our active characters to include up-to-date stats and the new guys. I think in a chapter or two, maybe around 11 or 11x, I'm going to start declaring units no one's voted to use in Three or Four chapters or so -- maybe longer, maybe shorter -- benched.

[Deme]

After being away, it's time for... A voting update. Thrilling, I know.

Chapter 10: Noel Canyon Preamble

Spoiler: Chapter 10: Noel Canyon Preamble

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"And the former nobles of Lenster, Leaf set out to aid the people of Tahra."


Well, that's a short introduction. To try and save on space in the post with actual fighting, let's see what happens when we start up the chapter.



A pair of riders runs up into the castle.


"Ah, Lady Olwen. Are you on surveillance again today?"

The other rider gets to interject, and I sigh with the knowledge I'll need to find font colors for both of them.
Oh, well.

"Well, Fred, I actually prefer going outside than being trapped in Dandrum Fortress."

Buuurn.
"He was born into nobility and has his future set out for him, but he's not a man to look up to. He's jealous of General Rinehart's fame and takes it out on you, his sister. Disgraceful, if you ask me."



Man, I love one-sided rivalries. Only way it could be better is if Rinehart forgets Kempf exists or if he thinks they're friends. I basically laughed myself sick with Oscar and Kieran in FE9. Well, mostly because I love Kieran so much.



I like to imagine what sort of things are conveyed by punctuation-speak. Are they smaller noises, or bits of body language that the game just can't represent, but would be evident in conversation?



Our boss is established in place...
And we cut to Leaf and the dummy army I picked to get these screenshots.


Well, finally as an army; we were still escapees when we left.


Oh boy.

"We have three choices.
One, we use our main forces to draw the enemy's attention while a seperate squad attacks the fort.
Two, we take our entire army and charge head-on, overwhelming the enemy by force."
"And the third?"


That is terrible advising, Dorias. Your liege lord is a 15-year old boy, you will get in there and advise him fully! Come on! Get your head in the game!

Well, anyway. Let's get our map on.

Still working out the kinks.

Alright, so. This map is...annoying. It doesn't look bad, you say? Well... *shrug*
Let's break it down a little further.

We have two villages, a north and a south, both imperiled. We have to move quickly to save them, and they've got good rewards.
Saving the South village is basically only doable by Karin, so we're bringing a flier to a map with Ballista. Joy.
Oh, and dodging balista bolts does increase fatigue. Just to make you hate them.

We'll need to be quick to save the North Village, and we've got a dude in our way.


This guy. While it wouldn't be too hard to break him down... He has a fire sword, so we want to capture him. Our best bets for that would be Fin or Fergus, because of brave weaponry...And because the way the game handles placing deployed units brings them closer to the enemy than Carion could get. Sorry, bro.

Now, the next thing we need to keep in mind are these guys:

The thieves coming to destroy the villages, houses, whatever. They have Stamina Drinks, do want. But if they can't destroy a village, they'll start trying to run away. Don't know if they can escape, will be annoyed to find out.

When the boss shows up, he'll have a Knight's Proof. A lot of our units are beginning to look at promotion, so we'll need to capture him or steal from him.

From there, it's just a matter of beating some units...And a few surprises. But by the time we're thinking about the surprises, we'll have hopefully handled the harder stretches of the map: IE, getting started.

Oh, there's also a dude with Bolting and Physic. Because what were you expecting? This is Thracia 776, there will always be a guy with Bolting and Physic.

Now, the good news is, we have a bundle of deployment slots. We have 14 deployment slots, counting Leaf's slot.
Well, I say 14, but I'm force-deploying Karin and Lifis. So that leaves us with you guys needing to vote in a Minimum of 5, maximum of 11 units. I've updated the character lists, and don't worry about filling out the maximum. Just vote for what you want, and I'll worry about the rest.

As always, if you have opinions about our scroll usage, tell me, and I'll arrange matters. Would it help you guys if I had a list of scrolls and stat-ups and stuff we have, maybe in with our characters?

...And, much as I regret observing, there's an arena this chapter, so, because we have a lot of space... Pick a unit that maybe needs catching up, maybe seems neglected or I'm about to bench, and I'll see what I can't make of them.
Oh, but it can be Marty only if you give a better explanation than "It was funny when Cake Attack did it." I'm a bit of a thief, but I'm not so terrible as to steal something as precious as that.

Edit:
Also, annoyingly, I thought I had a fatigue list in this post, but I did not!

Fatigue
Nanna is fatigued, no voting for her. Votes for Nanna are votes for me to do whatever I please.

Asvel 17/31
Shiva 21/35
Fin 5/34
Othin 26/40
Carion 37/40 (He'll have to sit out either this map or next, basically)
Selfina 1/22

[Javan]

14 slots total
1 auto-deployed in Leaf
2 force-deploy by will of Deme The Narrator
22 characters remaining to pick
11 slots to fill

I would like to see:
Fin
Fergus
Shiva
Safy
Asvel

Maybe
Havan

And I almost have to vote for Robert now.
So there's that.

But that's a lot of slots to fill.
But I have 7 votes so that's past the minimum...

It would indeed be nice to have a list of at least the usable items that we have collected so far.
The scrolls, it seems, have recently been moving around as a bulk item to whoever the hivemind directs to the grind.

[Deme]

True, true, but we a: have too many scrolls to fit in 1 inventory, and b: won't be doing this power-grinding during the main gameplay like we did with Carrion. Or, at least, not as much...Because I'm saving the Elite Sword for emergencies and touch-ups.

Anyway, I have made that list; it's in with our character profiles, in the grand index of indexes.
I figure if there's no opinion about scroll use, I'll look over the stats and levels of the characters we're bringing and toss some things at them accordingly...Though if you want to just toss on the fire if you think they'd be better used improving strengths or patching up weaknesses, I'll take that into account, too.

[ShinyRocks]

Please to be deploying:
Robert! 'Mostly boring but with a bow' needs his moment of glory.
Shiva
Safy
Fin
Asvel
Hicks


I kind of want Marty, but if that's too much to ask, by all means leave him warming the bench.

Scrolls I'll leave to your good judgement.

[Deme]

It's not too much to ask....As long as your reason for wanting it isn't to have lightning strike twice on that... Though, I guess without context, that might not make sense to people. Basically, I was first exposed to this game by an LP on the Something Awful Forums. And there, the LPer used a map -- this map, in fact, because it's rather convenient for it -- to turn Marty into a god. It was great fun, and I'd feel a little guilty stealing the gag for the sake of stealing the gag. That's not to say I'm against trying to make something of him... I just want a reason, even a small and hollow one, to justify it to myself.

[tyckspoon]

You've hit the inevitable point in a Fire Emblem game where I forget who the heck everybody is, so I'm just going to vote for axes. Bring along everybody who can wield an axe.