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[Prospero]

I mean, I don't mind "replay value," but Jesus.

My guys are in the northeast corner of the map; enemies are coming from the west side with a couple of straggling enemies attacking the base from the east. In the northwest corner there's a village with Erk the mage (who is on your side, but computer-controlled); in the southwest corner there's a bitchin' healer on horseback, who joins your army if you can manage to rescue her and keep her alive. The unit looks difficult to get, but I must have it.

Take 1: I send Marcus (who is on horseback, and built like a tank) down to rescue the cleric. Then the fortuneteller's gout starts acting up or whatever the hell, and it starts raining. Marcus gets bogged down, and by the time the rain clears up the pirates in the southeast part of the map have taken out the healer. Restart.

Take 2: This time I manage to get Marcus to rescue the healer before the rain starts. Too bad Erk (who is a freakin' mage, I'll say again) is on a suicide mission, running all over the map with no protection, challenging enemies he has no business tangling with. I manage to rescue the healer, but Erk dies. Restart.

Take 3: Marcus books it down to the southwest village before the rainstorm--excellent. My axewielders manage to finish off the enemies attacking their base by the second turn, and the rest of my units run over to Erk to give him support before he kills himself by running right up to units and casting his little thunder spell, instead of healing himself with a vulnerary. Everything looks copacetic. But how does Erk respond to my gesture of goodwill? By leaving my zone of control, running across the map and waking up the boss. I haven't yet outfitted my characters with the weapons and armor necessary to take down the boss (the only one who can take him on is Marcus, who is busy fending off pirates who are trying to take down my precious cleric.) The boss talks some smack and kills Erk in one blow, then runs over to my units and begins to lay waste. Restart.

It's a testament to the quality of the game that I'm willing to put up with that kind of abuse for enjoyment's sake. I should probably be cursing my own perfectionist tendencies instead of the mission design.

 

[Swordian]

I should probably be cursing my own perfectionist tendencies instead of the mission design.

No, you should be cursing Marcus. Don't rely too much on that exp hog.

 

[ge-man]

Yeah, that's an annoying chapter.

While I agree that Marcus is an exp hog, I think this is one chapter where that isn't too much of a problem. You don't have much time to save Erk so it's easier to have a character there who will get kills in one turn almost every time. Erk's worth the pain if you plan to really raise his levels--around level 8 or 9 it becomes clear that he can wreak serious havok on folks in spite of his weak defense.

 

[Diomedeskun]

If you're having trouble that early on, you are going to hate the later missions. I played most of the missions after 20 about 3 times, but mission 26 took me about five tries or more and mission 26X led me to take a 3 month long hiatus before I realized what I had been doing wrong and was able to protect my most vulnerable characters. I breezed through the rest of the game, until the final level.

Erk is useful, but you do get two much better characters in his class later in.

 

[ge-man]

If you're having trouble that early on, you are going to hate the later missions. I played most of the missions after 20 about 3 times, but mission 26 took me about five tries or more and mission 26X led me to take a 3 month long hiatus before I realized what I had been doing wrong and was able to protect my most vulnerable characters. I breezed through the rest of the game, until the final level.

No kidding. I've restarted 2 times because I just wasn't doing things right. The first time I did make the mistake on relying on high level characters like Marcus, and I ended up going into later levels having to babysit my lords. The second time I made the mistake of spending way too much time raising my lords levels--they were uber powerful before I got to mission 20, but most other characters were a non factor and couldn't be promoted. This time I got the balance right--now my magic characters and archers can truly be feared along side my lords, knights, fighters and swordsmen.

 

[Scrow]

I finished that chapter not long ago. Didn't really have any trouble. Got the girl and erk.

Firstly, you need to talk to Erk. I can't remember who talks to him though... probably Lyn or that annoying chick Erk is with at the very start of the game in the early chapters. Once you talk to him he'll join your group and you can control him (keeping him out of trouble). As for the girl in the village... you can send marcus if you like, but all you really need is someone on horseback to get there as quick as possible.

But seriously... it isn't a hard mission to get all your people through. Shouldn't have taken you that many tries

 

[Prospero]

Good advice, guys--thanks.

I'm already considering restarting, come to think of it--though I completed missions 11-13x in one sitting, I'm already starting to regret not letting Eliwood get into the mix a little more. Hector's strong, but Eliwood has a little trouble with enemies and usually needs a cleric nearby.

Also, it looks like the key to defending Erk is to "exploit" his AI--since he's not nearly as smart as the enemies (who at least know when to retreat and heal themselves), you have to leave an enemy nearby that's weak enough so that he can't finish off Erk, and close enough to Erk so that he'll be attracted to it and won't go wandering off near the level boss.

EDIT: "Once you talk to him he'll join your group and you can control him (keeping him out of trouble)." D'oh!

 

[GaimeGuy]

.... Why are you using marcus? :|

 

[Diomedeskun]

Levelling up the Lords over other characters may be bad for hard, but is not that big of a deal in the first play through. You get some pretty powerful characters in each class later on and Hector can rip through anything. You just need to keep weaker units out of danger.

Good battle planning is even more important. Granted, for my last level it mostly consisted of keeping Hector alive to kill almost half of the enemies himself.

Waiting for level 20 to level up units is only important for units that you are likely to max out. Units that are at level 12 near the end are not likely to make it to 20 and will benefit greatly from the class change.

Also, some of the pre-promoted units are quite good. Any unit in the game can be made useful with experience and luck (in the stat ups). The stat-up items can help quite a bit too. I never used the Mario Kart DD bonus disc items, but they include some nice weapons and accessories that can help in a pinch, as well as an angelic robe.

 

[Scrow]

a good strategy to keep all your units well balanced is this... when you're selecting which units will fight in the chapter under the "Pick Units" area, press "select" to view the Unit List. Under the "Character" screen sort all the units by their level by pressing up until it can't go further. move across to "Lv" and press "A". This'll sort them from highest to the lowest level (or vice versa if you press "A" again). Choose as many of the lowest units as you can each time.

There are of course exceptions. Units like Marcus are an entire class higher than the other units, but their "level" will be low for that class of unit. You shouldn't fight with them in the beginning if you don't have to. They're useful for weakening enemies and then letting a weaker character finish them off and get all the EXP, but often Marcus will kill the enemy in one turn and hog all the EXP.

The other exception is when you absolutely must take some characters, whether it be for strategic advantage (the weapons they wield) or recruiting characters (people they know and can talk to). This information is in the "Fortune" area.

If you do the above, you will have a really well balanced army

Oh, one other thing. Don't use items that will change the class of a unit until they are level 20. That way, once they're raised a class and reach level 20 for that, they'll be fully maxed out as much as possible. raising a units class too early (just when they're at lv 10) will result in lost EXP, which you can't get once they're level 20 on a higher class.

 

[Mjunter]

Marcus is a great unit to have early on. Just make sure you take away his weapons and use him as bait to lure and take enemies hits. For some reason they usually only go for him even when I have weaker units nearby.

And yeah, you need to use Serra to go talk to Erk. Can have him under your control by the second turn.

 

[john tv]

GOTY 2003, easily!

 

[jarrod]

GOTY 2003, easily!

Maybe in Japan, but over here was also got Advance Wars 2.

 

[Diomedeskun]

I put my vote in for Fire Emblem as GOTY 2003 also. Furthermore, best GBA game ever too (at least in the US).

Mario & Luigi and Advance Wars 2 are second and third place.

 

[slayn]

as a note, if you ever need to save the life of a nuetral unit (though in this case u can just talk to him and turn him over to your control) you can always just rescue them. They act like a baby, carry them around like a baby. "No more suicide missions for YOU!"

 

[ge-man]

as a note, if you ever need to save the life of a nuetral unit (though in this case u can just talk to him and turn him over to your control) you can always just rescue them. They act like a baby, carry them around like a baby. "No more suicide missions for YOU!"

That's a strategy I used in chp 16. Those damn soldiers who were guarding Lucius LOVE to run right into the fire. What the fuck are javelin's going to do against dark mages?

 

[NLB2]

I mean, I don't mind "replay value," but Jesus.

My guys are in the northeast corner of the map; enemies are coming from the west side with a couple of straggling enemies attacking the base from the east. In the northwest corner there's a village with Erk the mage (who is on your side, but computer-controlled); in the southwest corner there's a bitchin' healer on horseback, who joins your army if you can manage to rescue her and keep her alive. The unit looks difficult to get, but I must have it.

Take 1: I send Marcus (who is on horseback, and built like a tank) down to rescue the cleric. Then the fortuneteller's gout starts acting up or whatever the hell, and it starts raining. Marcus gets bogged down, and by the time the rain clears up the pirates in the southeast part of the map have taken out the healer. Restart.

Take 2: This time I manage to get Marcus to rescue the healer before the rain starts. Too bad Erk (who is a freakin' mage, I'll say again) is on a suicide mission, running all over the map with no protection, challenging enemies he has no business tangling with. I manage to rescue the healer, but Erk dies. Restart.

Take 3: Marcus books it down to the southwest village before the rainstorm--excellent. My axewielders manage to finish off the enemies attacking their base by the second turn, and the rest of my units run over to Erk to give him support before he kills himself by running right up to units and casting his little thunder spell, instead of healing himself with a vulnerary. Everything looks copacetic. But how does Erk respond to my gesture of goodwill? By leaving my zone of control, running across the map and waking up the boss. I haven't yet outfitted my characters with the weapons and armor necessary to take down the boss (the only one who can take him on is Marcus, who is busy fending off pirates who are trying to take down my precious cleric.) The boss talks some smack and kills Erk in one blow, then runs over to my units and begins to lay waste. Restart.

It's a testament to the quality of the game that I'm willing to put up with that kind of abuse for enjoyment's sake. I should probably be cursing my own perfectionist tendencies instead of the mission design.

easy as fuck, dude.
Just place the cleric girl, sara i think, in the formation position closest to erk. put lowen closest to the pirates. have sara talk to erk on the frist or second turn. and have lowen tank the pirates.

 

[Prospero]

I put my vote in for Fire Emblem as GOTY 2003 also. Furthermore, best GBA game ever too (at least in the US).

Mario & Luigi and Advance Wars 2 are second and third place.

I'm not yet ready to call it best GBA game ever, but I do like it a lot so far. Like Advance Wars 1 and 2, it's one of the only strategy games this gen that is actually willing to be challenging. The designers could have easily thrown in random battles and allowed you to level up until you could take down any enemy, but they chose to limit resources and enemies and carefully balance the game instead. Nice.

 

[JoshuaJSlone]

This game eats me for lunch. I don't remember the mission number I'm on, but it's not far past the topic starter's. There's a thief character I can get to join, but it has to be done before a certain number of turns have passed by... which means trying to keep safe from a number of riders in the same path, who don't have a hard time picking off some character, at which time I feel compelled to restart.

Thank deity I eventually realized you could hit Start to skip by the cutscenes.

 

[sc0la]

This game eats me for lunch. I don't remember the mission number I'm on, but it's not far past the topic starter's. There's a thief character I can get to join, but it has to be done before a certain number of turns have passed by... which means trying to keep safe from a number of riders in the same path, who don't have a hard time picking off some character, at which time I feel compelled to restart.

Thank deity I eventually realized you could hit Start to skip by the cutscenes.

Just get any character you can to go and stand on one of the chests he pillages on his way out (send a nice mix of people through the center building with at least one rider to break through and cover the chest. He will stand right next to you if you cover the chest buying you time to get lyn or someone else over to talk to him. make sure and hit up the secret store at the bottom right hand side of the map.

 

[Diomedeskun]

The first time I played that level, I did not realize that Legault could join. I had Kent dash past the horsemen at the gat, while another unit opened the door for him. Kent started chasing Legault as he came by (and cut him with his sword) until he ended behind some armored units. Kent then threw a javelin over the armor knight as Legault was getting away and killed him. It was one of the most exciting sequences I have ever played in a SRPG.

Pity that I had killed an excellent playable character. Thankfully, I lost against the boss and decided to send Eliwood to talk to Legault next time.

 

[Dyne]

Wow. I didn't have one problem with this level. The only levels I had problems with were 26x and a few after that. That's when people started dying on me.

I got the Fire Emblem guide from my NP subscription and I'm really enjoying going through with it a second time. (Yes, even after Hector's Story; I'm doing Lynn's and Eliwood's story all over again.)

P.S. I have no contempt for people who get by using Marcus. Don't use him and you'll be fine!

 

[ourumov]

I took a decision...To just forgett aboout getting all the characters/leveling all them accordingly...
Then the game began to rock.
I have been unable to keep Fiorina in one round...Don't know how she manages but she always is killed.

 

[Dyne]

I hate those pegasus knights. I let them die when I first played through. Then at 26x I realized I needed them.

 

[iapetus]

Meh. I picked up a Wyvern Rider fairly recently, so no worry about my Pegasus knights not having levelled up since I got them. Throw in the Delphi shield, and I might finally have a worthwhile flyer... and just in time for 26x. 26 was a real pain, but I made it through, and so far 26x seems tame by comparison.

 

[Socreges]

I hate those pegasus knights. I let them die when I first played through. Then at 26x I realized I needed them.

Yeah, they're weak, but so very critical strategically.