FE11 H5 No Forge & No Warp LTC - Chapter 2: The Pirates of Galder
47Completed in 5 turns (12 total).
Challenge playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbSv8zSDR9c1qU6v0rfjC2TFzed9xD6hI
Absolutely brutal chapter. While 7-turning the uncompromising first map may make your life miserable due to the low chance of success, where you replay the map until it fails again and eventually see yourself succeed, here you are subjected to torture in all sorts of equally painful exquisite ways and end up in the same place you started - restarting the entire map.
A 4 turn is possible, skipping Darros's recruitment. Recruitment is optional in this run, and not only is Darros unable to save any turns, he's one of the top candidates for sacrifices necessary to unlock the first gaiden map after chapter 6. The reason we slow down to recruit is it's unlikely to complete the map that fast without having TAS-level control over the enemies' starting stats, their movement, all the inaccurate attacks connecting (chapter 1 failed 24 times out of 25 for this exact reason; this map has some of the same specifics) and even some crits... before you even consider using the sole save point, the first one of its kind in the game.
That's just not happening!
So a 5-turn is what we settle for, and let me tell you that approaching it the way I did, i.e. feeding kills to key units including Shiida, Abel and Cain makes for a disaster of a run. Why these three? Shiida is the proud owner of the Wing Spear. It's relatively meek unforged but strikes cavs and armours, the latter comprising many of the game's bosses, effectively, so Shiida's training is critical for our success in this run. Abel and Cain are earlygame cavs and can be arranged to feed experience early on, hopefully proccing good growths. Abel is at a clear advantage, boasting the superior weapon type with D lances at base, wielding a Javelin immediately for (inaccurate) ranged attacks and shortly getting to C lances for Ridersbane. Cain has to choose between getting to C swords for Killing Edge on a horse (something Navarre offers instantly) or training lances for Javelin access, thereby not really being a good specialist in either area. What have we got to lose; Cain and Abel support each other and can try scoring good levels early. Their +spd/def levels in the first map are a first step to eventual greatness (for Abel at least; Cain can always be cast out if he doesn't turn out competent).
Perhaps my resolve to feed exp to these three was one of the causes for my frustration with this chapter, leading to the way I played it.
Six new characters join the party in this map. Barst is a keeper for sure with godly bases for this game's standards, and Bord and Ogma have contributions early on. Cord is more questionable in a fast run, and Darros outright stinks. Castor can be pretty decent as a user of iron and steel bows, but Sedgar and Wolf who join soon can do the same as Horsemen with 9 mov, as well as other neat things like tanking as Generals.
It's also our time to sack some units in the process. It's up to me who's going and I choose who I feel are the most useless units. Draug aka Doga chokes the last point of his life, guarding the bridge from a waterwalking Pirate. The Pirates here are already strong enough to ORKO him when he's equipped with a lance in spite of his defence, the highest in the party right now. I also sacrifice Gordin: Castor can use the same bows with better offensive stats and movement. After just one more map, I can also reclass people into mages and dark mages for more accurate chip. Goggles needs to go.
Pirates are absolutely ridiculous. Bulky and hard to overpower, requiring multiple units chipping in in an entirely unreliable manner with those atrocious hit rates. Their waterwalk enables them to endanger the entire party and not just the units I intend to sacrifice, requiring precise positioning. Darros functions as a warm body here - his Steel Axe weighs him down so much, he gets doubled and 2HKO'd, but unequipping it lets him survive a round of combat. He can protect an injured party member this way. He won't live long enough to be reclassed into a Knight, but I'm ready to knight him for this contribution anyway.
Towards the end, I slow down because things don't go as planned. A Hunter ends his turn in a place where Jeigan equipped with a Silver Lance (weapon triangle disadvantage) causes the last THREE Pirates in the boss area to target him over Ogma. Trading him an Iron Sword fixes that, but leads to a very underwhelming counter, making the Pirates much harder to beat on the next turn. Had the Hunter moved properly, I could've put Jeigan, Barst and Ogma in a wall in a way that the Pirates can't help but attack only one of each so that nobody would get attacked twice, which is fatal.
(out of space; continued in the comments)
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