FE8 - No Mounts Low Turn Counts Run: Chapter 15 - Scorched Sand
12Chapter 15 is completed in 3 turns (86 total).
Last combat-heavy chapter in the game (chapter 18 comes close due to being a rout, but most enemies are eggs so it doesn't require much work from most characters) and pretty much the final test to the infantry army we've grown up to this point. Very fast clears (mostly 1-turns) start beginning with the next chapter now that we have Warp, so aside from the mag stat of the Warp users (namely Artur) and the bosskiller, stats will be mostly irrelevant after this map.
And I gotta say I really busted my ass here. While the desert terrain is rather minimal here in comparison to some other desert maps we know in FE, it does hinder movement - and we don't have much movement to speak of in the first place, without mounts and flight. Nevertheless, a 3-turn of the map is possible (likely the quickest clear one can have in a continuous run in the NTSC version of the game) and since we pulled off just that, there were many difficulties.
The enemies generally concentrate to the west and to the south from our starting positions, exceptions being the 2 Mercs, the Berserker and two Peg reinforcements arriving after turn 2, all to the northeast.
Gerik promotes before the map, and his great unpromoted level-ups grant him impressive numbers in strength, speed and defence. He could solo the western portion of the map if he wanted to - first accurately doubling the axe and sword users with an Iron Sword, then, when the 1-2 range mages are in range, countering them with the less accurate Hand Axes and finally slaying Caellach with a Silver Sword (he's really bulky but those level-ups allow damaging him hard enough).
The problem is that there is a Shaman and a lone Merc a little bit south, hard to reach without a tome user who ignores desert terrain penalties and all three of mine are too busy ganging up on the southern enemies. I also need to retrieve the Warp staff whose field surrounds Caellach's fort, requiring Rennac (more durable than Colm) because Gerik's 9 luck is not high enough to have a decent enough chance to obtain Warp while still defeating Caellach. Rennac will also pull one of the mages away from Gerik, so I have to send Gilliam after him - OHKOing the mage with Seth's Silver Lance (2nd time I get to use it, which is kinda funny). Garcia heads south to engage the furthest Merc who is the hardest to reach. Some of the hit rates are bad here - Hand Axes mainly, but also Rennac's chance of KOing the sword users attacking him with a Killing Edge.
The south is also a story of its own. The enemies there are hard to withstand and hard to one-round - promoted Paladins/Rangers, bulky wyverns, evasive sword users whom Ross will often whiff, Silver Lance wielders among Paladins and high-AS Rangers who are tough to double being among the toughest threats among them. Ross's stength may be high, but with a Hand Axe he fails to 2HKO some of the wyverns regardless, requiring crits. Artur's accurate and resistance-targeting attacks are the most reliable way of clearing huge crowds of enemies on enemy phase, and he can switch to Excalibur to OHKO some types that nobody can double (the Rangers).
Saleh and Moulder follow them to support by healing, kill stragglers and also target such enemies on player phase that will not die to counterattacks on EP - there are two Troubadours, an Eclipse Shaman, plus there's Valter who pretty much requires a crit to die because he's surprisingly fast.
As you can see on turn 3, I'm really struggling to clean up the map on time, and things like 9% crit from Moulder on a wyvern happen - otherwise Tethys would be targeted on EP and the rout wouldn't have been complete. Rennac also requires a crit to finish off the Myrmidon whom he missed - this wouldn't have been necessary because Rennac 2HKOs if he were to connect both attacks. Alternatively, if Gerik hadn't whiffed the mage, Rennac would be free to use an Elixir, and the Myrmidon would suicide unto Gilliam's Silver Lance, making this much easier. As I've described though, it's very difficult for all those desired mini-objectives to be fulfilled with the hit rate related unreliability. Dozla's crit on the wyvern is not critical for the strategy's success because Ross is technically also in range and I could move Dozla away from him but still in pegs' range but it happened so I kept it.
Artur uses Barrier once on turn 1, before he's rescued and ferried across the desert sands, and then during the last turn with Tethys's help (who also tanks a Merc with her face so that Colm can target him on player phase, making the crit requirements for the enemy phase more forgiving). He gets the last 6 points of staff wexp, getting Warp access for the next chapter.
Challenge playlist:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbSv8zSDR9c26lYu02EA8IaBJcmStZg47
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