Part 3: Chapter 2 Hard Mode

Nothing like showing up to a thread a week late . Whatever, I'm fashionably late.

Some of you from the FE7 thread may remember me jumping the gun a bit on account my inability to pick up on subtlety, but I've rebounded and worked out a deal with Artix. I'll be showing off FE6 Hard Mode, and oh boy is it a joy . There are no story differences like in FE7, but that didn't stop IS from turning up the bullshit level high enough to break the damn machine. I'm looking forward to this.

I'll post two chapters today and two chapters tomorrow, and after that I'll try to keep somewhat in line with Artix, so shit doesn't get confusing.

Enough , time to hate myself.


Chapter One: Honesty I'd Rather Have Micaiah



At first glance the map appears to be a carbon copy of it's Normal Mode brother.


While Roy and co. are as competent as ever,


The bandits have apparently been spending more time at the gym. They hurt.


They hurt a lot, in fact. Our friend Damas here can 1HKO Roy and 2HKO anybody besides Bors and Marcus. We need to tread lightly.


First thing's first: Bors is out of the picture. Lance happily takes his vulnerary and iron lance.


Wolt also hands over a vulnerary. We'll be needing these.


Case in point: Alan went from full health to 1 hp after taking two axes. We don't have a damn healer yet either so all we can do is chug vulneraries and pray.


Pictured: Marcus getting some action. Whereas in normal mode Marcus is just a good emergency meat shield, in hard mode Marcus is THE meat shield, as well as emergency fighter.


He's old, but give anybody a silver lance and they'll do some damage.


I'm not showing every level up screen, but come on: besides the HP, this is everything Roy doesn't need.


Pictured: Marcus fulfilling his destiny.


Roy.jpg anybody? But really, Roy isn't going to be helping us much. Actually...


Again Marcus to the rescue. No he doesn't get the kill: he just softens the baddy up for Lance.


That's more like it. Lance is on the road to getting pretty speed blessed. I am okay with this.


We also stick around long enough for Lance and Alan to get their C Support. If you haven't guessed yet: Lance and Alan will be on my A-Team, barring any stat screwage. The reason behind this is that they are part of one of FE6's handful of support triangles. On top of the Lance-Roy-Alan triangle being great for keeping Roy alive, it's also just true that having two horse mounted units with an A-support tanking the front lines is pretty godly. Mobility is key in FE6, and having a team of strong horse riders and fliers makes dealing with the bullshit just that much easier.



Chapter Two: In which Dieck laughs at Hard Mode





I'm still learning Artix's fancy photo stitching program, so until then here's a cut up version of the map. Just take my word for it: once again it's functionally the same as it's normal mode counterpart. No, this won't last for long.


Praise the Lord, we finally have a fucking healer. I don't care if she only has 1 magic: anything is better than just chugging vulneraries. Also she got two levels this chapter, and magic in both. Not too shabby.


Yeah, Wolt can double these guys. Even on hard mode regular cannon fodder is just that. Though they do pack a bit of a punch if you've got a sword coughroycough


Turn two and Dieck and co join the party.


Dieck doesn't disappoint. Even on hard mode, Dieck can pretty much solo this chapter. Well okay, he'll need some Ellen heals. Still, those bases...


Pictured: Alan being able to actually 1HKO something. Sure it's a generic soldier, but still.


Dieck, ect.


Oh, I also forgot to mention Thany: We'll talk more later down below, but a quick aside: we aren't going to be using her.


A few turns later. Bors is off getting me that armorslayer and doing some shopping.


Why yes, I did just go buy about 3000 gold worth of vulneraries. All my fielded units will have some on hand, just in case. FE6 gets liberal with the bullshit later on, and if you get jumped sometimes running your staff user over isn't a viable option.


Our friend has a Javelin, but really nobody has strength to be hurting this guy in ranged combat anyway. Wolt does 0 damage to him, and everybody else should be engaging at melee range.


Effective damage? What's that? FE7 vets take note: Roy is not Eliwood/Lyn/Hector. He is not a crutch character used to take out bosses with effective damage. This guy has more than double Roy's strength in defense, plus a weapon triangle advantage. Also thrones are bullshit in this game.


Instead, Lott comes up to bat. His hammer is a long shot accuracy wise, but it packs a damn punch. Yeah Dieck could have pulled this off with the armorslayer, but the truth is I forgot about it until the last few seconds of the chapter


And that's that.

Well, that's it for tonight. I'll tackle chapters three and four tomorrow. First though, I'll give a brief rundown of the units and their general usage in hard mode. A small disclaimer: a lot of this is my own opinion and observation while playing through FE6. So if you disagree with me, let's keep it cool, yeah? I spent a little too much time on gamefaqs in my youth, and I can't stand fighting over which unit is better than another.

Roy: HAHAHAHAHAHA.
But really, no. Roy will see limited combat action at the start of the game, but his position as dead weight will be solidified quickly. Once we get into the meat of the game he'll even become a liability, because I'll have to put walls around his stupid ass as I march him over to the throne.

Lance/Alan: Functionally the same unit. Lance has a bit more speed and Alan has a bit more strength, but both of them also have lots of movement, good growths and an A support. I use them together in hardmode, since they support one another well. They're rock solid members of our early game, but if they end up sucking I might have to drop them.

Wolt: Same as in normal mode: Good for early potshotting, discard the moment you can do so.

Bors: Bors and his crazy starting defense. Honestly I just don't use knights/generals in hard mode, but if I did it would probably be Bors. Great defense and a decent speed growth. His mobility is terrible though, and he's hard to train due to wielding a lance in the early game when axes are everywhere.

Marcus: God until about 5-6 chapters in, then he drops off. Still, he's useful for whittling high HP enemies down, as well as tanking hits.

Ellen: Despite being considered the worst cleric in the game (1 base magic, really IS?) she pretty much always ends up as my end game bishop on hard mode runs. She turns out pretty usable most of the time, and she gets so much exp out of the constant healing you need to be doing in hard mode that by the time you get replacements, she's probably already outpaced them. Basically: don't say no to staves in a hard mode rune.

Dieck: 1/3 of the way there, people.

Ward/Lott: Beyond the first few chapters, I've never really put much effort into using them. I'd imagine Ward could be a pretty decent tank, but I have much better units to do that for me.

Thany: For some reasons I won't get into yet due to spoilers Thany is, at least in my opinion, functionally obsoleted in hard mode. She also has durability rivaling that of talc powder in a hurricane, and when I'd rather put Roy up front than you, there's a problem. She'll be warming the bench.