FE6 Reverse Recruitment HM LTC Chapter 1: Dawn of Destiny

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MoogleBoss

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Published on March 29, 2015 3:42:58 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUAhRvAX8bk

Game:

Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade (2002)

Duration: 6:18

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Chapter 1 completed in 5 turns.

I sorta have other FE runs to finish still, but I've been burnt out from wanting to return to any of them for what seems like quite a while. Regardless, I felt like doing this recently as it seemed exciting, new and fresh and all that. And so I started the run.

Seasoned FE fans will recognise this, but 'Reverse Recruitment' is a Fire Emblem patch (made by Paperblade afaik) where characters join the party in reversed order - that is, the Gotoh character is now your Lord and vice versa, which applies to the rest of the large FE cast joining the team. In the challenge run showcased, Karel replaces Roy, Yuno is now the Jeigan instead of Marcus (a prepromoted flier from chapter 1!) and Allen/Lance/Wolt/Bors are replaced with Niime/Yodel/Dayan/Douglas. Their stats are deduced in a very specific way - their growths are subtracted from their vanilla base stats until their levels match the characters they're supposed to be replacing.

The character dynamics and other nuances this shift brings with it are interesting to say the least, and some of the strategies resulting from this are quite fresh - for instance, eventually we're going to have not one but two dancers (a dancer and a bard, anyway) and it also looks like there will be no potent user of Warp in this run, which will likely put us at a disadvantage in contrast to a regular vanilla Low Turn Counts run featuring Saul and Niime.

Now, chapter 1 is the beginning of our adventure and just looking at the map, it seems like a 3-turn is possible. Yuno would have to use her flight and 8 move to carry Karel up north, drop him in seize range and then kill the boss/clear the enemies in Karel's way to the throne by next turn. The actual reliability of this is non-existent however, and so we have to take a longer way around, supported by the rest of the party (now with a priest's healing!) and that gives Karel some chances to gain experience as well.

I show everyone's base stats in the beginning of the video. Karel looks disastrous with 2 str, 5 skl and 0 everywhere else! However, everyone knows what his average level-up looks like - 210% hp, 130% str, 140% spd, 110% def, among others. He is sure to have more than bearable stats eventually, but actually fighting his way there is going to be quite troublesome. Right now, his lack of speed and evasion makes him an easy target for OHKOs. However, the AI doesn't detect him actually being a Lord so they'll sometimes prioritise trying to kill somebody else (like Yuno) should that character also be in a moribund state.

Yuno is wonderful, even though 9 strength is sure to get underwhelming shortly if she fails to proc more of the stat. Unlike vanilla Marcus, she can fly and use the best swords at base, but she's arrow-weak and misses out on axes with WTA against the multitude of lance wielders in the game. Will be used a lot early on.

Niime has poor growths, meaning her bases in the reverse patch are mostly really good. She'd be an earlygame nuke if her low Con didn't render her so vulnerable to being doubled by... attacks that tend to OHKO hit right from the start, too. :(

Dayan looks very promising. With very high speed and bow access (not a bad weapon type in FE6), he's sure to find some use even generally lacking an enemy phase. It's hard to get him good growths with what we have to work with, but it really pays off if he grows some decent stats.

Yodel is just an early healbot, without much hope for doing something meaningful later on, considering we get Cecilia very soon (and she's mounted) and then Saul/Lugh/Ellen follow with better magic scores and bases. I guess it's quite handy that he doesn't die from a single round of combat at this point?

Douglas is weird... 0 speed sounds like a recipe for disaster, but he has more strength and defence than Bors had in vanilla so there are some situations, especially early on, where having him around is better than not having anyone. He can run utility visiting villages and chipping in and whatnot.

Yuno leads the way in this map, followed by a trusted healer and backup that will help deliver Karel in such a spot of the map where enemies won't just annihilate him (and quite reliably since he's got 0 avoid!). Yuno grabs the bosskill exp even though Dayan may want it more - I didn't want to burn through Silver Sword uses so early, and for Dayan, the quality of level-ups is far preferable to their sheer number (unless promotion is desirable ASAP, which I'm not so sure about just yet). And look what a lovely level-up he gained on the last turn of this map.

Some very nice characters are joining our ranks in the next chapter...

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