Saturday 7 January 2017

ITT I Play Hector Hard Mode (part 25)

Chapter 29: Manifestation of my Hatred

Units Deployed:
Hector, Eliwood, Lyn, Ninian, Oswin, Florina, Sain, Canas, Pent, Louise

New Units:

Vaida (Lv9 Wyvern Lord)
Bases: 47 HP/22 str/21 skl/14 spd/11 lck/22 def/7 res/12 con Swd A/Lnc A
Growths: 60 HP/45 str/25 skl/40 spd/30 lck/25 def/15 res
Supports: Dorcas, Merlinus, Canas, Heath, Wallace, Harken, Karla

Summary: Vaida can be best described as a flying Oswin. Like Oswin, she hits hard and is virtually indestructible on the physical side, but is desperately slow. Also, like Heath and the pegasus sisters, she flies. That's uber cool, even though VoD is the only map left that has uneven terrain.

Chapter Summary:
I fucking hate this chapter.

I think it is generally agreed on that this is one of the hardest maps in the game, right up there with Genesis and BBD. Like Genesis, this map is basically saturated in magic wielding enemies, with only 5 enemies on the entire map, including the boss, being physical units. Not only that, but 12 enemies have either siege magic or status staves.

Among the multiple threats on this map, the biggest threats are the sleep staff sorcerer next to Lloyd (27 magic makes her staff virtually impossible to dodge; even Canas faces ~50 hit), the valkyries (which can have upwards of 20 speed, making them virtually impossible to double), and the Bolting sage in the northwest corner of the map (his 30 attack combined with the Purge bishop's 25 attack can strip 70-80% of a low res unit's HP even with pure water/barrier).

Then we get to Lloyd himself. He's not quite as tough as Gel from Binding Blade, but even so, it's not fun trying to take down a unit with 22 AS/80 avoid and 55 HP/18 def/25 res bulk after throne bonuses, especially when he can't be critted, no thanks to his iron rune. He is also quite deadly on offense, packing 30 attack and 32 crit hitting resistance at 1-2 range with his prism sword.

For these reasons, the player is recommended to bring units with high resistance. Units such as Canas, Hawkeye, and Pent are ideal for this role, though any unit with sufficient res will do. Also, bring plenty of pure water and some barrier staves. Because one can never have too much res on this map.

I should probably also talk about this map's reinforcements. The reinforcements on this map, rather than spawning after a set number of turns, will spawn whenever the player puts a unit in one of 4 "trigger zones". The trigger zone across the double bridge near the player's starting position will spawn a bishop and 4 monks from the forts on the center of the map, while the trigger zone on the island west of the player's starting position spawns a sorcerer and 4 dark mages from the forts south of Lloyd. The trigger zone located across the bridge directly north of where Hector starts will spawn 4 valkyries from the forts on the northeast corner of the map. These reinforcements will spawn once every 2 turns, up to 4 times.

The last trigger zone, which encompasses the entire northwest corner of the map, will cause Vaida and two wyvern riders to spawn from the southeast corner of the map, then 5 more wyvern riders for the next 2 turns. To recruit Vaida, talk to her with Hector.

Lastly, be sure to visit the house in the southeast corner of the map, which contains a warp staff. 

Prior to starting the map, Oswin consumed the boots. He needs this in order to reach Lloyd in any reasonable timeframe, and also to retrieve the talisman in Chapter 32 within 4 turns (he's not really doing much in VoD otherwise, due to his low move). It also helps with movement in general since Oswin cannot be carried by any unit except Eliwood (or Rath, but I'm not using him).

Turn By Turn Analysis:
Turn 1: Pent and Canas cast Barrier on Sain and Flo, respectively. Flo picks up Canas and is danced, allowing her to move west and drop Canas on the north side of the river, between the 2 western bridges. Sain heads west to block the bridge west of the starting position. Oswin crosses the double bridge while everyone else gathers around it.
EP: The 3 dark mages on the south island attack Sain and all die. The 3 monks across the double bridge die on Oswin, while Florina kills 2 dark mages and chips a valkyrie. Canas also chips a valkyrie. The purge bishop attacks Ninian.

Turn 2: Canas and Flo kill the 2 valkyries they chipped earlier. Eli kills the purge bishop. Sain takes a fresh hand axe out of the convoy, gets healed by Pent, then is danced and kills a monk.
EP: Sain kills 3 monks, gets hit by the sage's Bolting, and dodges a berserk. Canas kills 3 dark mages and dodges a sleep. Florina kills a dark mage and a sorcerer (both hits critted, only mattered for the sorc). Note: Sain needed to dodge the berserk while Canas needed to dodge the sleep.

Turn 3: Sain and Flo get healed by Pent and Canas, respectively. Flo moves west to kill the last of the dark mages while Louise kills the bishop reinforcement and Sain and Eli kill more monks. Oswin kills the fortify troub while Louise gets danced and kills the lone monk next to the troub.
EP: Lyn snipes the 4 mages on the eastern island from across the river. Oswin draws in both heroes and chips them. Hector dodges a Bolting. Canas and Louise dodge a silence and a berserk, respectively, while Sain gets put to sleep. Note: Canas and Louise needed to dodge their respective status staves, but there was 0% chance Sain was going to dodge.

Turn 4: Pent and Louise kill both heroes. Pent is also danced so he could restore Sain. Canas kills the sleep staff druid. Oswin moves northwest and uses his pure water. Eli moves north and kills the bishop reinforcement, with Sain tagging along to kill another monk. Flo visits the warp house.
EP: Canas kills the lone bandit. Sain kills one more monk and chips another (he whiffed the second hit), gets attacked by the sniper, and dodges a Bolting and a berserk. Pent dodges a silence.

Turn 5: Eli kills one of the valkyries near the northeastern forts. Lyn is danced, and moves northwest to kill the sniper. Louise kills the last of the monk reinforcements. Canas and Flo kill the berserk and silence staff valkyries, respectively. Oswin takes out the silence staff druid.
EP: Flo and Oswin get attacked by purge bishops, the former also dodging 2 thunder valkyries. Louise dodges a sleep and a bolting. Hector gets hit by Bolting.

Turn 6: Flo takes out the sleep valk. Oswin kills one of the purge bishops, moving into Lloyd's range with the swordreaver equipped. Sain kills the bolting sage. Eli takes out the second NE valkyrie. Louise removes the third bishop reinforcement while Lyn kills the NE berserk valkyrie. Pent moves south to deal with the wyvern reinforcements.
EP: Lloyd and Oswin trade blows. Vaida attacks Hector. Pent takes out 2 wyverns. Lyn gets surrounded and attacked by the 3 monk reinforcements. Canas dodges another purge while Flo chips the 2 remaining valkyries.

Turn 7: Hector recruits Vaida, and is then danced (Vaida picks up Ninian and flies NW). Oswin kills the other purge bishop. Pent sits on a forest on the southeast corner of the map and kills a wyvern rider. Canas and Flo kill the remaining valkyries, while Lyn, Louise, and Eli kill the monks.
EP: Lloyd and Oswin continue to trade blows. Pent kills 9 wyvern riders.

Turn 8: Oswin kills Lloyd. Lyn, Louise, Eli, and Sain take out the rest of the trash.

Turns Taken: 8/199

Ending Thoughts:
At long last, Hector promotes. About fucking time too.

And Oswin finally decided to gain a point of speed, in like, what? 5 levels? Jesus... he's still really sluggish either way, but I suppose with capped defense and resistance that's +8 above his averages, he's still unkillable anyways.

All in all, here's some friendly advice for completing this map: do not enter the trigger zone on the east island. Otherwise, valkyries start spawning and they are actually really hard to kill in one round since basically nothing that is able to use javelins/hand axes can double them (and obviously, mages have it even worse, since they're like 3HKOing and not doubling).

And before I forget, here's the image of Hector and Lyn having anal sex while she's tied up/gagged that I promised in the BBD segment.

Unit Stats:
Name       Level   HP SM SK SP LK DF RS CN Weapon Level
Hector     20/ 1   41 20 19 15 11 21  9 15 Swd D/Axe A
Eliwood    20/ 3   43 22 19 22 18 13 11  9 Swd A/Lnc D
Lyn        20/ 5   47 20 24 24 21 12 12  6 Swd A/Bow C

Ninian     13/--   25  0  0 25 24  9 14  4 --
Oswin      18/10   50 25 20 12 10 30 20 16 Lnc A/Axe S
Bartre     15/ 4   48 23 16 15  7 17  4 15 Axe S/Bow E
Priscilla   7/ 0   20 10  8 10 10  3  9  4 Stf B
Sain       15/ 4   37 22 10 18  9 15  6  9 Swd B/Lnc A/Axe C
Florina    13/ 6   31 15 21 23 18  9 13  5 Swd E/Lnc S
Raven      15/ 8   50 25 23 26 10 16  6  9 Swd S/Axe B
Lucius     13/ 7   30 22 13 19  6  7 23  7 Lgt S/Stf A

Canas      15/11   46 27 18 21 14 14 24  8 Drk S/Stf A
Legault    15/ 0   30 10 16 20 13 10  6  9 Swd C
Heath      15/10   52 27 22 20 11 25  8 10 Swd B/Lnc S

Pent       --/ 9   35 20 21 18 16 12 18  8 Anm S/Stf A
Louise     --/ 6   29 14 15 19 16  9 12  6 Bow A
Vaida      --/ 9   47 22 21 13 10 22  7 12 Swd A/Lnc A

Supports:
Hector x Lyn A, Eliwood x Ninian A, Raven x Lucius B, Pent x Louise A


Swag List:
Warp
Iron rune

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Have a nice day.

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