FE10 bronze weapon (and knife/raven) playthrough - Complete!
Both Endgame-3 and Endgame-5 were quite rough. I just lack any way to control Dragons quickly, so I had to play carefully, and Dheginsea was... kind of a hilarious fight, because I was so offensively inept. Definitely needed the most planning of the playthrough. I pretty much had to use both Volke (6x2 damage with Ena and a +1 power support with Reyson) and Heather (4x2 damage with Ena and a max power support with Rhys), both with Nihil, with Volke getting in 3 attacks per round (2 on the turns Dheg uses MT, which is every 3 turns) and Heather getting in one, to break past his 30 HP regen. Used the following formation:
_Dht
KVE_
trY_
Re__D - Dheg
V - Volke
R - Reyson
K - Kurth
E - Ena
Y - Rhys
Basically, each round was as follows:
Enemy phase:
-Dheg attacks Volke, who counters. Or uses MT, in which case no counter. He has no other legal targets to attack since he won't touch the dragons.
Player phase:
1. Rhys uses Physic on Volke.
2. Volke attacks with Baselard.
3. Ena trades Baselard from Volke.
4. Heather moves up to position "h", trades Baselard, and attacks.
5. Titania moves up position "t" beside Heather, trades Baselard, then cantos to position "t" beside Kurth.
6. Elincia heals Volke, then moves to position "e"
7. Reyson moves to position "r"; chants for Volke, Titania, and the healers; cantos back to his initial position.
8. Kurth trades Baselard from Titania
9. Volke trades Baselard from Kurth, attacks.
10. Elincia heals Volke, then retreats.
11. Rhys uses Physic on Heather.
12. Titania rescues Heather, and takes her off to the right to safety.
13. Someone takes/drops Heather.
Repeat! Of course, during this, there are reinformcents coming, which the remaining PCs are tasked with dealing with. Sometimes things get hairier and I have to use Fortify to get a few more healing actions in, but yeah.
Would have been easier if I'd just got the Ravens to cap strength by this battle, but oh well! Hilariously both capped it from BExp right afterwards.
Less specific to say about E-5. I didn't deploy Ena since she hadn't gained any levels and thus could be one-rounded by the boss, and I didn't feel like seeing that happen, so my offence was quite slow. Nealuchi had Parity, while two mages (Sanaki and Calill) had Nihil and these three were mainly tasked with killing corner auras, along with Micaiah. Soren's hit was atrocious due to Thunder + no hit support (Calill had Elincia) so I couldn't really use him much, so he mainly healed. Rhys had Fortify and used it plenty, between this, E-3, and E-4, I had to Hammerne the damn thing. The ravens also fought auras. Other PCs (Ike, Soren, Boyd, Titania, Elincia when she wasn't healing) weren't really capable of dealing with the boss herself, so hunted spirits.
PC rundown, by kill count (in parentheses):
1. Sothe (128) - Already good, the challenge just makes him by far the MVP of the Dawn Brigade chapters, and as such, the MVP of the playthrough. The weakest of the three knife-users in endgame due to the latest promotion time and having the lowest attack, but such is life.
2. Heather (101) - Hey, the challenge makes her a capable combat unit! Granted, at first, her stats are such that she isn't the GM's MVP, although being the only physical unit with 1-2 range is always useful. As time goes on, though, she picks up more and more, due to her weapons only getting better, supports, and a good promotion.
3. Ilyana (99) - Is around forever. Is a mage, aka the least screwed over type of unit by this playthrough (except knife-users and ravens, of course). Was the worst Sage by endgame except Tormod, so didn't make the cut there. Even Bastian would have gotten in above her.
4. Micaiah (88) - Is around forever, magic power is godly. Only reason she doesn't have more kills is because of needing to spend some time on staff duty.
5. Soren (85) - Mage, is around a lot. No real explanation needed at this point. The worst of the Sages in the final dungeon that I did bring due to meh speed and accuracy, but he was evasive due to the Ike support at least.
6. Rolf (78) - Archers aren't screwed over quite as badly as most physical units because they don't lose greatweapons. Rolf has awesome Str. This made him a solid part 3 unit and an endgame consideration, though not one I took. Pity about Deadeye sucking.
7t. Calill (73) - Mage, is around... okay, not forever, but long enough. Magic could be better, but who cares, SHE ACTUALLY DOUBLES STUFF IN PART 4 YESZ.
7t. Titania (73) - Obvious enough, Titania is always good and high Str is part of that package, so she's still good here. Made the final dungeon because as far as filler units go, ones with canto are the best (see the Dheg strategy), and she was Boyd's support. Getting swords on promotion sucks though, and a Skl/2 non-fatal mastery is pretty lame even if it heals.
7t. Boyd (73) - Crazy speed gains. I wasn't really expecting to get much out of Boyd despite his on-paper Str, but when you get that much speed, sure. One of the best units through part 4, though still kinda underpowered in endgame though the best standard weapon-user possibly. Colossus is awesome and that really matters on this playthrough!
10. Nealuchi (66)
11t. Vika (63) - Hey look it's the ravens. They're not around that long, and they have to play catchup through much of part 4, but the endgame payoff is so damn worth it on this challenge. I doubted how useful they'd be, but yeaah. High attack once they get SS strike (which both of them got around Endgame-1 or -2), great in Parts 1-2, canto, ludicrous durability, it's all good. Nealuchi's the better of the two due to having an extra map for catchup and higher Luck, but the gap wasn't large. Oh, and Tear freaking rocks, 46% activation and it always kills? Heck yes.
11t. Aran (63) - Along with Boyd, my other unit with a crazy RNG blessing. Speed cap wasn't high enough to take into endgame, but otherwise his Str/Spd/Def were all awesome, and we can't ask for much more than that. Skl% mastery helps, even if it isn't a fatal one.
13. Haar (60) - Probably the MVP of the Ike sections of Part 3. Some things don't change. Even with Bronze, Haar had 3-4HKOs on everything, 2HKO when he doubles... which is often. His power is so high that Stun was often fatal, and it's Skl%, and he promotes fairly early, and he flies... yeah. Never a serious consideration for endgame, though good stuff.
14. Ike (55) - Aether is a version of Sol that heals less and kills more often. Good stats, so definitely a solid unit. Crappy in endgame when the standards got way higher (see Boyd comments, Ike wasn't as good.
Weirdly). Used a Speedwing on him so he'd double the BK so I could beat him with Ragnell (that fight and the final blow to the final boss were the two times I had to break the challenge).
15. Jill (44) - Being the only non-suck unit in the Dawn Brigade with Canto is worth so many strategic points on this playthrough. Used throughout part 4 where flight is great, despite shaky Str.
16. Zihark (42) - Only Swordmaster worth using! Astra is a terrible mastery skill and his Str was bad, so he survived through part 4 only due to being Jill's support really. In the DB maps, solid due to being a prepromo, all of those are highly valuable.
17. Gatrie (39) - Look guys it's the non-flying Haar. With a better mastery! Though he promotes later, of course, which hurts in a few ways. Still good.
18. Kieran (35) - Other than Calill, the other CRK favourite, due to his good strength and actually sticking around. Easy enough to get up to speed for part 4 duties, so yeah. Promotion does little for him, but oh well.
19. Volke (34) - Guess that works out to an average of 6 kills a map or so? Kinda surprised this isn't higher, but three of those maps don't have many kills, so sure. Anyway, game-best offence, he's essential, etc.
20. Shinon (33) - Str could be better, but he gets to tier 3 easily enough, and his base stats are quite high, so little reason not to use him, even if his part 4 performance was highly forgettable due to combination of bleh power + a bad mastery skill.
21t. Oscar (31) - Str is a problem, so he spent time benched in some part 3 maps where I had a small party (so did Shinon, albeit less often). Still, see Kieran comments, easy enough to have capable by part 4, and while his strength is lower, he's fast enough to double most things, so yeah.
21t. Sanaki (31) - Mage, has high power. These are good! Durability needed work, but I did give her a Seraph Robe so it was okay. Having Light helped her accuracy and mostly served to keep her ahead of Soren in the final dungeon.
22. Tauroneo (30) - DB prepromo, they're good, Luna is good stuff as part 4 filler but the stats weren't great otherwise.
23. Tanith (23) - Level 16 + flies = easy part 4 filler in the Silver Army. Stats were actually solid enough, which was a pleasant surprise. Sigrun's really weren't, though I used her in the same filler role (she got 14 kills, IIRC).
24. Geoffrey (22) - Good enough in the CRK maps, I dumped BExp on him so he'd promote in 4-5 but only barely useful there. Still, filled a slot.
Rhys also deserves note as someone I used all through the game. I think I was wrong to use him over Mist (despite the latter's offence being literally zero), as his low doubledigit kill count showed, although occasionally his chipping was useful, so maybe not. Still, could have used another healer with Canto + her def support. There was also Elincia, a no-brainer while she was around, although bereft of her super-sword her offence was certainly quite bad (not Mist-level non-existant, though). Flying healer still rocks regardless, though.
Longest maps were Revelations (Oliver's map) at 20 turns, Geoffrey's Charge at 19, Marauders (part 3 CRK) at 18, and Rebirth-3 (dragons) at 17. Not really sure what to make of that list, except that apparently the CRK can't really afford to lose offence. Oliver's map being that long is unshocking given how many reinforcements show up if you take your time, which on this playthrough was inevitable. I ended up at a higher level than most of my playthroughs because of how long it took me to kill things in general, most PCs were around Level 15-18, with Heather and Volke at 20.
I have a post to make on Saga Frontier too but it is late, so I'll do so later.
