LFT has changed considerably since my last playthrough, and, for lack of anything better to do, and because I've never actually seriously done one, I'm going to attempt an SCC. After brief discussion with Laggy, I've decided to go with archer. Archer has gotten some interesting changes in LFT, and I'd like to see how things pan out with an all-archer team--starting from the standard SCC checkpoint of Dorter.
So!
I decide that Ramza--who shall be named Apollo--is obviously a Sagittarius (look this up if you don't understand why), so he is given the birth date of December 1st.
After the intro fights, it's time to recruit some soldiers. I need a team of bad enough dudes to rescue the Marquis, and nothing less will do. Apollo's fellow cadets are stripped and booted in order to recruit:
William: Male Taurus, Br 67, Fa 40
Robin: Male Pisces, Br 68, Fa 53
Legolas: Male Aries, Br 70, Fa 44
Arash: Male Taurus, Br 70, Fa 50
Algus is an annoying twit, but he does live through Mandalia despite my not really caring whether he survives or not.
Okay, so, we move through the opening battles, get to Igros, buy everyone bows, fight a random for a bit of pocket money, and now we have five bow-equipped archers, Delita, and Algus. Team Archer DOMINATES Sweegy; there's just no other way to describe it. The enemy just can't handle the focused-fire.
Dorter:
Wait, he says...does Wiegraf look like a waiter?
The challenge has officially begun. Delita and Algus don't have any special setup; they're in squire mode with basic equipment and basic skills like throw stone. Both have item secondary. I don't expect it to matter. All of my characters have long bows, feather hats, and leather clothes.
Need to abuse archer Ignore Height for all it's worth, so we head for the high ground. Once we get up there, the enemy archer flees, and Charge+3, Charge+4, and Charge+6 arrows rain on the enemy. Algus and Delita get nuked with fire, and Algus goes down after a crossbow bolt finishes him off. Predictably, the enemy knight takes some time to drop.
Since everyone has a Charge ability,
I'm going to save JP for Speed Save. I assume that will be a very helpful and important ability.
Algus proves he learned to interrogate people at Gitmo; I get into a random with...two black goblins? That's it? Anyway, I buy a few sets of Battle Boots and make Delita a thief; he'll actually be a better tank that way than he will as any other job, especially since I don't actually have knight armor, and he'll do more damage, too. Plus, he can Steal Heart any female enemies.
Sand Rat Cellar:
I run one archer up to the top of the building and spread out around the perimeter; the monk and archer go down from quick charges. Ignore Height breaks early game battles in hilarious ways. I get Apollo, Robin, and Arash up on the building's frame and they're basically untouchable. Killing the last knight takes a while because his evade is pretty good, but he can't attack me, so what does it matter?
Apollo, William, and Robin learn Speed Save. We head back to Igros. Everybody gets leather vests and I have enough cash to buy Apollo a red hood.
Thieves' Fort:
After 2 resets, two things dawn on me. One: Battle Boots won't help much in this fight, since there's little room to kite. Two: Concentration might just be necessary to deal with the thieves and their evasiveness.
Attempt 3:
Apollo: Speed Save/Concentrate. Long Bow, Red Hood, Leather Vest, Battle Boots.
William and Robin: Same, except Small Mantle.
Legolas: Same, minus Speed Save.
Delita is a fully-equipped knight; Algus is a thief. Both have mantles.
This was a breeze with Concentrate. Being able to actually hit Miluda's support (and Miluda) made it possible to win handily. Delita made a fantastic tank. The enemy would've ripped me apart if I'd tried to ignore them and go for Miluda, since she took 5 or 6 hits to kill.
Lenalia:
Delita's still got the same setup, as does everyone else.
Blitzing Miluda became necessary partway through the fight, just because I was sustaining too much damage. A knight broke Delita's armor, which was annoying. Delita actually used Wish to raise Apollo at one point. No special setup required, honestly.
Delita has an identity crisis, we all wonder why Miluda had to die in the first place, and life goes on. We return to Igros to do some shopping and replace Delita's armor. I purchase two Night Killers and Bronze Shields; Apollo and William are going to be crossbowmen, since the Night Killers have a higher WP and having a couple "front line" archers with shields can't be a bad idea. The other three will stick to longbows for now. Apollo gets the leather mantle since it has the PA +1 bonus now.
Fovoham/Windmill Shed:
1 reset
Blitz tactics won't work. I'm not sure why I attempted them in the first place. Wiegraf is durable and his support has pretty solid offense. Second round goes better; I knock down one of the monks and my good compat night killer-using archer plugs Wiegraf twice with charge+6 for 50 damage each hit.
Robin learns Charge+20 after the fight, on Laggy's suggestion. Woo! I switch back to longbows for the Zeakden fight since I'll be able to abuse Ignore Height and snipe.
Zeakden:
You all know how this is going to go down. Ignore Height plus bows is just SILLY on this map. And WOW, the xbow knight can return fire! That's kind of amusing. Also, I can't hit anything with Charge+20. No surprise there, but...just an FYI. Even early-game, Charge+20 isn't going to hit stuff, unless you target it when it has 0 CT.
After some roof-sniping in which we are in no danger whatsoever, Zeakden explodes and blasts us off into Ch2.
