Chapter 14

Honestly man, I'm only posting this because I finally got a decent translation and this is the most fucking irratating chapter I've ever played in any Fire Emblem. First off there are those goddamn Wyvren lords with the stupid silver lance that no matter how freakin' low their hit rate is they manage to KO any mage within reach. AND I've used both the angelic robes I've found on my mages!

Then those fucking god forsaken homo berzerkers and their entourage show up while I'm backtracking to get the speedwings I forgot about. I honestly think I've restarted about a dozen times now, any suggestions? I'm guessing by the time anyone sees this I'll either have done the chapter or gotten so fed up I delete it off my computer but I guess its worth a shot.

Ah. Only noticed this today. Sorry didn't get to ya earlier. I sympathize completely . What's worse, I've only played through FE6 once - a very long time ago - and I had troubles with this chapter as well (had to retry twice I think), so my advice might not be much use. If nothing else, it might help you to know that (IMO) this is the hardest desert chapter in any FE game, so if you beat this one you can crown yourself king of deserts... (I can tell, you are jumping for joy aren't you?).

Also, consider using prepromos if you've been holding any useful ones back. If you have percival yet (he was recruitable in the last chapter if you played like a god - don't worry, if you didn't get him he's available again soon) he has great stats for here that should counterbalance is crap movement. Echnida, or her counterpart if you took the other path (I think it's Bartre?) might also be useful. Klein should probably be brought as well since he's got his bow for helping against those dragon knights. But IIRC the prepromo who joined you this chapter (valkyrie) is pretty useless thanks to mounted and low bases. Even look among unpromoted units you're not using for options - if lilina or lugh got a couple levels, they could still be more useful than stronger, but lower mobility, units.

I don't remember which promotion items become available when, but if you're willing to sacrifice one of the more plentiful kinds (I think there are a lot of knight proofs in 6?) you might be able to buff a unit or two up . So if you either A: have a unit you aren't going to use anymore anywhere between lvl 10 and 20 or B: have a unit you are going to use around levels 15-20, consider promoting them (if you can). Among other things, a few points in def or HP might help if the mages you used angel robes on are having durability issues.

A promoted sage or peg knight would probably be particularly useful here. You can use them to split low-move enemies (the berserkers) and rescue weaker units, and get out of danger areas pretty quickly. Even if you don't promote any pegs, I would say that a thany or tate at base level is probably more useful than, say, a strong, one-move armor. If nothing else, you can replace to lesser characters with a peg/thief combo that should spare you all the grief of those goddamn desert items (esp if you're willing to skip some), which will make things a lot easier for your other characters.
((do thieves get 1-cost move on desert? I know they have 3 movement cost in FE10 but I can't remember move-costs in any of the other FEs, except that mages have 1-move-cost))

I don't know much about the starting unit positions or reinforcements, but it's possible someone has a map/list of them if you think it'll help you plan your routes (I think I may have split my forces in two, but I can't remember...)

You should also check this out. If you can afford to, you should at least get the speedwings, boots, silver card and guiding ring (the guiding ring must be picked up by sophia).
http://serenesforest.net/fe6/desert.html

I don't remember if they are in this game but you should not forego the excellent torch staves. If they are around, I suggest giving one to cecilia (she's too slow to actually attack much or risk being attacked, right?) so that she can help out on the intel front. But if they aren't absent, or if her staff level is too low, I apologize - again, it's been a long time since I last played.

On a final note, I can probably give you better advice if you post up some stuff about your current lineup (what characters you have).

Also, are you going for the gaiden chapter? That will make things even harder, but...

This post has been edited by SeverIan. on Mar 30 2009, 09:53 PM

Lol.

A couple days late but your advice pretty much went along the path I took. I can't remember my exact unit choices but they went fairly well along the ones you listed.

I didn't recruit percival untill later but instead of using my unpromoted magic users (Lillina and Ray) I replaced them with Echidna and (I can't remember her name and I'm watching UFC fightnight live and I don't feel like looking but shes the female swordmaster.) and sent her and my other swordmaster to deal with the annoying berzerkers.

I wound up skipping the speedwings and the warp staff but those were the only two I missed.

Also on the promotion item front, in the secret shop a couple levels later has Knights Crests, Elasyian whips, guiding rings, hero crests and angelic robes so I'm kicking myself now for not getting the speed wings and skipping the knight crest.

Off topic, but I really like the magic users in this FE, every one I've been using (Lugh, Lillina, Ray, and the Elime Priest who you get right off the bat, once again watching UFC fightnight live and I don't wanna check) have retardedly good magic stats. Thats always pissed me off in the other FE's I've played, mediocre magic.

I was also wondering what a good lineup is, I've been using a fairly magic-heavy general lineup so far, but I've got a couple really good paladins, (alan and Lance) and 2 of my theives are level 20.

PS I'm on chapter 16 now because I fucked up and forgot to save after I beat it and 17 so anymore input would be great.

PPS thanks Sev. :D

That's fine, I didn't either. He's really goddamn tough on that chapter, unless you have a mounted unit rescue your bard unit (which makes it tough because of all the enemy mounted units in that area) I think you have something like a 2-or-3 turn window at most to recruit him. (it takes that long to move your 5-move unit up to him). I tried like twice before I gave up. I might have had better luck if I had massed my entire force north though.

But he's pretty easy to recruit in the later map (I don't think there's a turn limit for one thing).

I don't know of any prepromote female swordmaster, I guess you mean you promoted Fir or something?

Lugh IIRC doesn't normally get great magic (though for a speedy mage he's still a lot better at that stat than erk, who often gets mag-screwed), but when I went through he was typically one of my highest level units (along with the cavaliers, dieck and rutger) so he evened himself out.

The mages in FE8 are ok but in FE9 and 10 mages are some of the worst units in the game IMO. Not so much do to low magic, as low attack-tome power (tomes stretch from about 2-15 power rather than about 5-20 attack like melee weapons). Moreover, a lot of them (soren, micaiah) have doubling issues. Even in the healing department, the large number of maps with team dispersal and the small number of staff-user availability makes mages less useful at healing than most other FEs, and as a result healing items are far more useful in FE10 than in just about any other FE besides 5.

I think FE7 and FE9-10 got the worst mages of the series. Outside of there, they're actually alright or even good. (I've heard they're the best class in FE Shadow Dragon but I've barely played that game).

You will not be able to promote your thieves (I hope this is not bad news for you - IM SORRY) so while they are definitely serviceable underpromoted units, they'll start to mellow out once other units promote. Still, there are some 2-branch castles where it'll be useful to have two high level thieves, so don't kick yourself too hard if you were expecting to use them endgame.

Paladins are ridiculous in this game so Alan and Lance are definitely good choices. Although I tend to think myrmidons are kind of weak, rutger (the guy who had a killing edge) is not one of the low-strength ones so you should consider using him if he isn't too far behind, or you haven't been using him already. Dieck, Miledy and Gonzales, are all great (if you don't use gonzales, promote dieck soon and make him your dedicated axe user!). He's tough to level up, but if you're looking to make a under-leveled unit great late game, take Zeiss with you.

Although a heavy magic-user lineup should be fine for most of the game, you should know that units without SS weapons will be fairly useless during the last 2 chapters of the game (which are heavily populated with dragons). I think. I don't remember how high the usual mamkute's res is, but I think it's pretty significant unless you have the triple-damage-bonus from the SS weapons (in which case your mages can swat them like flies).
((All this applies only if you're doing the gaiden chapters. If you are skipping them, don't worry about it.))

If you have 3 S-rank weapon users, (sword, axe, and lance or bow) I think you should be fine with a heavy mage lineup. You could probably even do it with 2 s-ranker melees.

If you start to dislike your lineup, don't worry too much. There are a fair number of usable prepromotes (percival, echniada, I think there are some others) to help ya out if you need some replacements. Also, I can check to make sure but while Cecilia starts out pretty weak, I've heard she gets good enough growths to actually be a pretty good prepromote (probably not worth it though).

Also, if you haven't used fa yet, I'd continue holding back. She should be strong enough with the stone to score weakened-kills off of enemy units, maybe even during the last chapters of the game, and if you wait long enough she can probably score 100 EXP per kill. But she does need to be leveled up a bit to be on the frontlines. Still, a chiki who levels up against strong enemies (with only 10 or 15 uses of her stone) can be a great ace-in-the-hole.

((Actually, it's been a long time now and I don't know if/when Fa becomes meat for the enemy at her base stats. I'd look at her stats every so often, and if the enemies start to get close to a 2 or 3 hit kill, pull her into battle and level her up 3 or 4 times. She has good growths so that should be enough to put her ahead for a bit, and she should be able to do so with 7 kills max)).

Also, you should know that while Roy is actually a great unit statistically (his averages are actually better than the paladins' IMO, though he is lacking a bit in STR for a sword-only unit) he will start to be useless soon because his promote comes very late. In fact, he promotes before the last chapter of the "normal" game - unless you do all the gaiden missions, he will only be promoted for one chapter (the SoS is still rigged enough that he can make his mark during that time, though).

I don't remember which one 16 is, but I think it's the one with douglass and narshen, right? To give you good advice, I need to know if you're doing gaiden maps, because you need to recruit douglass if you want 16X. If you don't care about gaiden maps, kill the fat motherfucker because he's a pretty crappy unit and he's one of the few difficult recruits in FE history.
((He actually isn't too hard if you have a sleep staff. Put it on a fairly high mag mage/sage and you can keep him out for the entire chapter if need be.))

This post has been edited by SeverIan. on Apr 1 2009, 09:12 PM

I have to disagree with that, my Lugh is a level 9 sage and his magic is about 2 points from maxed out, and the only stat boosting item I've used on him is (as I said) an Angelic Robe.

Here are his stats

Mag 25
Skl 20
Spd 21
Luck 14
Def 11
Res 17

And I must say, for a level 9 sage those are hella good stats. He's absolutely mashing Lillina's stats, who's 12 levels lower than him but still, 3 defence is pretty shitty.

I have to disagree with that, my Lugh is a level 9 sage and his magic is about 2 points from maxed out, and the only stat boosting item I've used on him is (as I said) an Angelic Robe.

Here are his stats

Mag 25
Skl 20
Spd 21
Luck 14
Def 11
Res 17

And I must say, for a level 9 sage those are hella good stats. He's absolutely mashing Lillina's stats, who's 12 levels lower than him but still, 3 defence is pretty shitty.

I am NOT bashing you for using a lugh with such godly magic, but there's this phrase called "personal experience means nothing". In other words, I acknowledge that YOUR lugh, this playthrough, has great magic for his level, but lugh's growth rates cause him to normally have only 23 magic at level 20/20. At level 9 he will normally have 18 magic points. His speed and skill are his "normal" stand out traits with slightly higher bases and higher growths (10% more). I'm not saying his magic is bad. I'm just saying it's normally not godly.

http://serenesforest.net/fe6/average/lugh.html

This is not abnormal. Few besides rabid lilina fans would rank her above lugh, I think. She joins a few chapters later, but is about the same strength as level 1 lugh at that point - in other words, she needs more babying because lugh has at LEAST a few levels by the time she joins. Secondly, even in her join chapter lugh (if you're using him) gets more usage because he's not stuck in a jail cell for most of it. As far as stats go, Lilina's only imporant lead IMO is magic, where she beats lugh by 7 points (and she makes her cap ~10 levels early). Since YOUR lugh is on his way to capping magic, overtaking lilina in her only useful lead, lilina is almost unavoidably going to be less useful than he is. She beats him in res, but a gap of 4 res points is kind of unimportant. Lugh's res is good enough that enemy mages will be targeting melee units before they target him, so it's not like lilina's res lead is actually important. She also beats him in luck, but lugh beats her by wider margins in both spd and skill. And he has better physical durability (more def and HP).

I don't know supports in FE6 - I don't even know affinities - so I can't speak on that. But at least in terms of availability, both lugh and lilina have some pretty good ones (lugh has ellen, chad and hugh, lillina has roy, gonzales...I'm not sure if oujay is a good support or not, I've heard good things about him but I'm sure he's nowhere near dieck...I think lilina's gonzales support is a particularly useful asset because he is a great character with few other good supports. But I don't know enough about echnida or treck to say those are bad characters through the whole game).

I believe her con is also worse than lugh's by at least 2 points, maybe more. Which is pretty substantial when she already has mediocre speed. Lugh is a great doubler, lilina doesn't (or shouldn't under normal circumstances).

The problem with lilina is that her huge magic growth quickly becomes obsolete (she caps it) and for the last 10 levels she gets little good growth unless the RNG goes out of its way to bless her.

This post has been edited by SeverIan. on Apr 3 2009, 07:19 PM

Oh man I can't believe I left this so long without posting, I've completly forgotten all the points I was planning on making but I wanted to say thanks Sevvy for the useful input.

Oh and also I didn't think you were bashing Lugh, and I do know that my personal FE experience does not equate to the end all truth of the matter.

But I will make the point that "personal experience means nothing" is an extremely bold statement in any other area other than something governed by a RNG. In life personal experience means everything, but I think thats more a LUE board topic.