*Sorry about the gameplay quality not being the best, I had to do a lot resizing to make the video and it affected it a little negatively* What did you think of this challenge? What steps could be taken to increase consistency without sacrificing the rule? MERCH HERE: www.bonfire.com/store/kratosmvn-store/
the challenge itself is only really going to be a problem until you get past chapter 5 since you get access to the smithy which unlocks engraves and allows you to basically get any weapon you want provided you get the materials for it which would greatly boost your damage options and survivability but if you wanted to make it a little easier you could always make it so you are allowed 1 time crystal use in the event of a wipe before having to reset but you have to go as far back as the game lets you in that fight only reason i say this is because maddening adds a lot of reinforcements to certain fights and would make it very very annoying to deal with for instance the dragons at the bottom of the map for tikis paralogue which requires you basically standing there killing them until around turn 40 or so to stop them from spawning again
@@kratosmvn_ im also not entirely sure but i believe cooking and strength training are available in the somniel before you do chapter 5 so if you pair that with taking advantage of celines passive for healing people you should be able to theoretically survive everything
I watched the stream live and after it had ended, I wanted to see how possible this challenge would actually be. I used only women, but I allowed resetting (but not time crystal) to see how difficult each chapter would be My biggest reset point was Chapter 2, I really struggled to manoeuvre using only two units I was able to beat Chapter 3 while keeping Etie alive, and she really did put in work on Chapter 4, making that map certainly possible. I beat it on my fifth time, only resetting due to unforced errors while I still navigated the challenge Chapter 5 is the point of this run where I say it would be infeasible for anyone to beat while using Iron Man rules. I essentially had to play perfectly for every turn, using every single resource available to me. Especially Divinely Inspiring and Fortify Defence. After Chapter 5, the game becomes easier. Ch6 is an easier map in and of itself, and you get your 6th unit and 2nd emblem A little bit later, you unlock the Divine Paralogues (which were legal by Kratos' rules, but the Fell Xenologue wasn't). With the tools I had available, I was able to beat the three paralogues that gave me female emblems, and was able to continue the run from there I'd say after this point, the Iron-Woman challenge is only mildly harder than a vanilla Iron-Man challenge as the units and emblems available to you increase greatly. Though I am currently before Chapter 17 on my own run, so I can't comment further but I have a feeling that it wouldn't be too difficult, since I'm currently beating most maps on my first go, with maybe 1 or 2 resets due to unforced errors
Yeah, Chapter 5 is that big fall off point, but thank you for testing it out too so I don't feel like a complete madman for finding it infeasible haha.
I think a good description for your verdict on this challenge is, "infeasible." Not literally impossible, but (in your opinion) you'd have to be crazy to try it.
Its a shame this run couldn't pan out. Perhaps next year, the community could make an all women hack to iron woman for women's month. Might be a fun thing for the members to take part in, though I'm sure it would be a huge undertaking.
Maybe I'll find a way to make something like that work, but your idea is great. I'll keep it in mind and we could maybe do something great for everyone to enjoy!
Interesting stuff, and very good message at the end. I do wonder just how differently an Iron Woman that's Female Units-only, BUT allows them to wield Male Emblems would go.
I do agree that failed runs should be posted too, they have value... But on another note, you DID make this incredibly hard on yourself with the extra rules xD
Ironwoman+Madenning= Oh boy, Kratos what have you DONE! (I got to around Chapter 17 or 18 then just lost all interest in a regular Madenning run, let alone Iron Man) Kudos for trying haha
GiantGrantGames made a video of a pacifist run for StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty where the last mission is shown to be improbable. But he explained the strategy that can make it possible, the statistics of that happening, and how long it would take before the result could possibly be achieved assuming perfect and continuous execution. He made it entertaining even though it involves a lot of big numbers probably because he kept the tone of the video consistent to the end. Basically, what you did at the end is a good approach for these kinds of challenges. It's just that, having that difficulty in the first legal chapter is... unfortunate.
A part of me wanted to do the exact calc of everything needed to go right and all the possible things that could happen up to that point, but I'm really bad at maths and it started getting too complex for my brain haha, but that would have been a fun approach.
Nice summary of a really good stream. It was an attempt, and it was a long one. It really is an iron Maiden challenge. Nobody could've knolln that this challenge would be so difficult.
I still think this challenge would make for an entertaining series, just maybe not as an ironman. I know that goes against your channel's whole ethos of challenge runs, but cutting out essentially half the roster (with some pretty big losses in units like Alcryst and Kagetsu) is still enough of a challenge imo. Also that ending speech hit me right in the feels
I mean, it could still be an entertaining challenge run without the ironman ruleset for sure. Thank you, I thought I'd do something a little different for the end there, glad you liked it :)
Someone completed it as an Alear solo. But the difference there is Alear solo means all EXP is funneled to one unit. With this while you’re limited units will get more overall exp, the limited numbers actually works against you. It’s harder to work with 4 level 6 units than 1 level 9 or 8 level 5.
A bit of a correction for Chapter 2 Lumera’s AI does not prioritize hit rates whatsoever in her targeting for Vander/Framme/Alear. Instead what she does is that for phase one of the map she is hard coded to rush Alear, but for Phase 2 if she can reach Vander she will always target him no matter what. This can be abused as you can move Alear deep and kill both cavs on enemy phase with the rapier and have Vander out of the way to bait Lumera. An interesting quirk is that if Vander is protected by Chain Guard while Lumera rushes him, she will attack him again the following turn as she only changes targets if he’s out of range or he has not taken damage from her. After she attacks Vander and does damage, she will then prioritize Alear after the turn she attacked Vander, and then every turn afterwards is then based on damage/hit rate. I’d like to add that if she does target Alear she will not use the Ridersbane and instead use Libération.
I've seen the comment and I'm inclined to agree, I think you should allow Male Emblem Rings for your Units to use. They themselves are not individual units, but moreso an augment to your actual units, they all have unique strengths and abilities but are more or less just weapons to use.
Engage earlygame is just...bizarrely balanced. Honestly if it was possible it would have been nice to play through the earlygame on a lower difficulty and then raise the difficulty back to mad at a certain point That would require some game hacking though The only other option is to play normally first and then apply the rules later in like chapter 6/7/8 or so Everytime I start a new run of engage I'm always baffled/astounded at the difficulty spike in the early chapters and then it just smoothens out later Another option would be to just try on hard or normal I guess, though in a strange twist the game, or specifically the earlygame, is not that much easier, even on normal the earlygame is still jarringly difficult
Yeah, a few of those options could be possible, but I don't want to "cheapen" the challenge that much so it's hard to accommodate for the weird early difficulty without feeling like I'm just moving the goalpost.
Thats true I guess. I was thinking the run could look very interesting. I've never done with only the female emblems before, though the lack of marth is noticeable earlygame and sigurd is definitely a thing. For the earlygame the "strategy" I had was dumping all the statboosters onto celine and basically she has to clear out most of the enemies herself. If its not doable on mad, the only option would be lowering it to hard I guess. Though I'm not sure how much of a difference it makes on earlygame and by mid/lategame the "difference" in difficulty (or lack of rather) is something Normal would be much the same but even more It's really kinda ironic since compared to some/most of the other games engage is actually fairly gender balanced in the opening, (roy's starting squad has zero girls at all, for example), but the gameplay is just weirdly tuned that you have very little margin
Jeez, this game hates challenge runs. I tried a duo maddening run with just Alear and Yunaka awhile back, just to learn after a certain point in the game if a boss with an emblem ring can’t hit you, they get unlimited uses of their emblem special. It was not fun and they just outpaced my damage and healing far too much, and I didn’t have the Michaiah ring at that point in the game so the run died
Yeah, I feel like Engage has so many mechanics that can make challenge runs fun (rings and reclassing mostly), but the way the game flows with certain elements makes it really hard to accomplish a lot of them.
The main thing you’re missing in this run is AI manipulation and some map knowledge. If you want to fast clear 4 the best way to do that is to have Chloe pull the boss by entering the Mage’s range but not the boss’s. This will pull the boss to come down. With some fancy flying from Chloe you can probably get her to rejoin your forces and clear the map reliably. From there look at Triangle Attack and use enemy flags to manipulate enemy movements for the first little while. This run should be very possible I think.
I agree that this might be a good way to take on Chapter 4, but Chapter 5 has very little AI to manipulate as most, if not all, the units that are not behind the door are coded to go straight for you right off the bat or on turn 2. It's just a sheer game of luck and not being overwhelmed at that point.
If you watch the Ch. 5 rout 5 turn XS posted a week or two ago you’ll see some stuff that can help with 5. Chloe with Str Tonic or +2 Str Ring (probably go with Tonic in an Ironman) can two shot the Sword Fighters on the left as demonstrated there. Celine will probably need to stay in the middle to take care of the Armor. This means Chloe will need to retreat since the Archer will go for her but if you go for the bottom right corner you should be able to space the enemies coming from the left side out. You could probably put Celine/Framme/Alear so that Celine is barely in range of the Archer and Alear takes the Sword Fighters then Chain Guard them. Especially with HP Tonic Celine can tank both hits and you can get a good start on all the enemies before the people on the left start moving toward you turn 3. I haven’t done it myself but especially if you can keep Etie alive it should go okay.
Literally not clickbait In this video I highlight a challenge I believe MIGHT be impossible. I breakdown all the reasons why it might be impossible whilst showing my own attempt to demonstrate my experience and provide a concrete example, and furthermore, I use the word MIGHT in the title which is a very important qualifier there as I myself am not fully convinced that it is impossible, which I do also touch on in the video. If that's what you call 'clickbait' then I'm sorry for you buddy, but you should probably get off RUclips as most videos might be clickbait in your eyes. Please learn to use your brain correctly before commenting something this dumb next time :)
@@kratosmvn_but you're not actually describing what the challenge is in the title or thumbnail. The only way for a prospective viewer to know what the infeasible challenge is is by clicking onto the video. Vaguely insinuating about a topic without elaboration on what the topic is is the textbook definition of clickbait. Same tactic as those "You won't believe THIS crazy trick" articles online tabloids put out. Vid's good and all, but the title could be more specific to not bait clicks. The rest of your challenge highlight videos don't seem to do this, just this one is at fault.
*Sorry about the gameplay quality not being the best, I had to do a lot resizing to make the video and it affected it a little negatively*
What did you think of this challenge? What steps could be taken to increase consistency without sacrificing the rule?
MERCH HERE: www.bonfire.com/store/kratosmvn-store/
I wonder if excelblem levels of degeneracy could beat this challenge...
This is possible, I'm 100% positive on it
the challenge itself is only really going to be a problem until you get past chapter 5 since you get access to the smithy which unlocks engraves and allows you to basically get any weapon you want provided you get the materials for it which would greatly boost your damage options and survivability but if you wanted to make it a little easier you could always make it so you are allowed 1 time crystal use in the event of a wipe before having to reset but you have to go as far back as the game lets you in that fight only reason i say this is because maddening adds a lot of reinforcements to certain fights and would make it very very annoying to deal with for instance the dragons at the bottom of the map for tikis paralogue which requires you basically standing there killing them until around turn 40 or so to stop them from spawning again
Yeah, the crux of it is that it's pretty infeasible until Chapter 5, but if you manage to get past 5, it should be doable in general.
@@kratosmvn_ im also not entirely sure but i believe cooking and strength training are available in the somniel before you do chapter 5 so if you pair that with taking advantage of celines passive for healing people you should be able to theoretically survive everything
I feel like this type of run should be called an Iron Maiden run, it sounds cooler
That's such a great idea
Can you beat Fire Emblem Engage women only in the time it takes to listen to the entire Iron Maiden discography?
I missed the biggest opportunity there...
Yoooooooo that is hardcore as a name.
I watched the stream live and after it had ended, I wanted to see how possible this challenge would actually be. I used only women, but I allowed resetting (but not time crystal) to see how difficult each chapter would be
My biggest reset point was Chapter 2, I really struggled to manoeuvre using only two units
I was able to beat Chapter 3 while keeping Etie alive, and she really did put in work on Chapter 4, making that map certainly possible. I beat it on my fifth time, only resetting due to unforced errors while I still navigated the challenge
Chapter 5 is the point of this run where I say it would be infeasible for anyone to beat while using Iron Man rules. I essentially had to play perfectly for every turn, using every single resource available to me. Especially Divinely Inspiring and Fortify Defence.
After Chapter 5, the game becomes easier. Ch6 is an easier map in and of itself, and you get your 6th unit and 2nd emblem
A little bit later, you unlock the Divine Paralogues (which were legal by Kratos' rules, but the Fell Xenologue wasn't). With the tools I had available, I was able to beat the three paralogues that gave me female emblems, and was able to continue the run from there
I'd say after this point, the Iron-Woman challenge is only mildly harder than a vanilla Iron-Man challenge as the units and emblems available to you increase greatly. Though I am currently before Chapter 17 on my own run, so I can't comment further but I have a feeling that it wouldn't be too difficult, since I'm currently beating most maps on my first go, with maybe 1 or 2 resets due to unforced errors
Yeah, Chapter 5 is that big fall off point, but thank you for testing it out too so I don't feel like a complete madman for finding it infeasible haha.
It's okay, Marth is an honorary girl anyway.
Marth has been recognized
I think a good description for your verdict on this challenge is, "infeasible." Not literally impossible, but (in your opinion) you'd have to be crazy to try it.
Yeah, I think this is a good way to describe it.
Its a shame this run couldn't pan out. Perhaps next year, the community could make an all women hack to iron woman for women's month. Might be a fun thing for the members to take part in, though I'm sure it would be a huge undertaking.
Maybe I'll find a way to make something like that work, but your idea is great. I'll keep it in mind and we could maybe do something great for everyone to enjoy!
Interesting stuff, and very good message at the end. I do wonder just how differently an Iron Woman that's Female Units-only, BUT allows them to wield Male Emblems would go.
I'm glad you enjoyed the end! :)
I think using all Emblems does sound a little bit better to help the reliability of this.
Ultra Instinct Chloè
*Ultimate Battle plays as Chloè dodges attacks*
KA KA KA KACHI DAZE
I do agree that failed runs should be posted too, they have value... But on another note, you DID make this incredibly hard on yourself with the extra rules xD
I did make it extremely hard on myself you are right lmao
Ironwoman+Madenning= Oh boy, Kratos what have you DONE!
(I got to around Chapter 17 or 18 then just lost all interest in a regular Madenning run, let alone Iron Man)
Kudos for trying haha
Yeah, Engage can be a little punishing on Maddening at times lol
GiantGrantGames made a video of a pacifist run for StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty where the last mission is shown to be improbable. But he explained the strategy that can make it possible, the statistics of that happening, and how long it would take before the result could possibly be achieved assuming perfect and continuous execution. He made it entertaining even though it involves a lot of big numbers probably because he kept the tone of the video consistent to the end.
Basically, what you did at the end is a good approach for these kinds of challenges. It's just that, having that difficulty in the first legal chapter is... unfortunate.
A part of me wanted to do the exact calc of everything needed to go right and all the possible things that could happen up to that point, but I'm really bad at maths and it started getting too complex for my brain haha, but that would have been a fun approach.
Nice summary of a really good stream. It was an attempt, and it was a long one.
It really is an iron Maiden challenge.
Nobody could've knolln that this challenge would be so difficult.
Thank you thank you
I still think this challenge would make for an entertaining series, just maybe not as an ironman. I know that goes against your channel's whole ethos of challenge runs, but cutting out essentially half the roster (with some pretty big losses in units like Alcryst and Kagetsu) is still enough of a challenge imo.
Also that ending speech hit me right in the feels
I mean, it could still be an entertaining challenge run without the ironman ruleset for sure.
Thank you, I thought I'd do something a little different for the end there, glad you liked it :)
Kagetsu and Alcryst both suck so not using them is hardly detrimental.
Someone completed it as an Alear solo. But the difference there is Alear solo means all EXP is funneled to one unit. With this while you’re limited units will get more overall exp, the limited numbers actually works against you. It’s harder to work with 4 level 6 units than 1 level 9 or 8 level 5.
Yeah Alear solo sounds like a lot of fun, but yeah having the ability to reset and funnelling all XP into one unit helps a bit.
A bit of a correction for Chapter 2
Lumera’s AI does not prioritize hit rates whatsoever in her targeting for Vander/Framme/Alear. Instead what she does is that for phase one of the map she is hard coded to rush Alear, but for Phase 2 if she can reach Vander she will always target him no matter what. This can be abused as you can move Alear deep and kill both cavs on enemy phase with the rapier and have Vander out of the way to bait Lumera.
An interesting quirk is that if Vander is protected by Chain Guard while Lumera rushes him, she will attack him again the following turn as she only changes targets if he’s out of range or he has not taken damage from her. After she attacks Vander and does damage, she will then prioritize Alear after the turn she attacked Vander, and then every turn afterwards is then based on damage/hit rate. I’d like to add that if she does target Alear she will not use the Ridersbane and instead use Libération.
Thank you for such a detailed explanation, I had no idea about that. It'll be very informative for future runs in Engage.
I've seen the comment and I'm inclined to agree, I think you should allow Male Emblem Rings for your Units to use. They themselves are not individual units, but moreso an augment to your actual units, they all have unique strengths and abilities but are more or less just weapons to use.
Yeah, it would help the run be a little bit more consistent
Engage earlygame is just...bizarrely balanced.
Honestly if it was possible it would have been nice to play through the earlygame on a lower difficulty and then raise the difficulty back to mad at a certain point
That would require some game hacking though
The only other option is to play normally first and then apply the rules later in like chapter 6/7/8 or so
Everytime I start a new run of engage I'm always baffled/astounded at the difficulty spike in the early chapters and then it just smoothens out later
Another option would be to just try on hard or normal I guess, though in a strange twist the game, or specifically the earlygame, is not that much easier, even on normal the earlygame is still jarringly difficult
Yeah, a few of those options could be possible, but I don't want to "cheapen" the challenge that much so it's hard to accommodate for the weird early difficulty without feeling like I'm just moving the goalpost.
Thats true I guess. I was thinking the run could look very interesting. I've never done with only the female emblems before, though the lack of marth is noticeable earlygame and sigurd is definitely a thing.
For the earlygame the "strategy" I had was dumping all the statboosters onto celine and basically she has to clear out most of the enemies herself.
If its not doable on mad, the only option would be lowering it to hard I guess. Though I'm not sure how much of a difference it makes on earlygame and by mid/lategame the "difference" in difficulty (or lack of rather) is something
Normal would be much the same but even more
It's really kinda ironic since compared to some/most of the other games engage is actually fairly gender balanced in the opening, (roy's starting squad has zero girls at all, for example), but the gameplay is just weirdly tuned that you have very little margin
Jeez, this game hates challenge runs. I tried a duo maddening run with just Alear and Yunaka awhile back, just to learn after a certain point in the game if a boss with an emblem ring can’t hit you, they get unlimited uses of their emblem special. It was not fun and they just outpaced my damage and healing far too much, and I didn’t have the Michaiah ring at that point in the game so the run died
Yeah, I feel like Engage has so many mechanics that can make challenge runs fun (rings and reclassing mostly), but the way the game flows with certain elements makes it really hard to accomplish a lot of them.
This looked like an agonizing challenge, the game just doesn’t want you to win in the way you want to
The game bonked me and said no!
This would be SO cool! Iron Maiden. And listen to Iron Maiden maybe???
The ultimate Iron Maiden run lol
The main thing you’re missing in this run is AI manipulation and some map knowledge. If you want to fast clear 4 the best way to do that is to have Chloe pull the boss by entering the Mage’s range but not the boss’s. This will pull the boss to come down. With some fancy flying from Chloe you can probably get her to rejoin your forces and clear the map reliably.
From there look at Triangle Attack and use enemy flags to manipulate enemy movements for the first little while. This run should be very possible I think.
I agree that this might be a good way to take on Chapter 4, but Chapter 5 has very little AI to manipulate as most, if not all, the units that are not behind the door are coded to go straight for you right off the bat or on turn 2. It's just a sheer game of luck and not being overwhelmed at that point.
If you watch the Ch. 5 rout 5 turn XS posted a week or two ago you’ll see some stuff that can help with 5. Chloe with Str Tonic or +2 Str Ring (probably go with Tonic in an Ironman) can two shot the Sword Fighters on the left as demonstrated there. Celine will probably need to stay in the middle to take care of the Armor. This means Chloe will need to retreat since the Archer will go for her but if you go for the bottom right corner you should be able to space the enemies coming from the left side out. You could probably put Celine/Framme/Alear so that Celine is barely in range of the Archer and Alear takes the Sword Fighters then Chain Guard them. Especially with HP Tonic Celine can tank both hits and you can get a good start on all the enemies before the people on the left start moving toward you turn 3. I haven’t done it myself but especially if you can keep Etie alive it should go okay.
I think this video is the first time I’ve ever heard the words “framme is very useful”
but, she is useful...
what are you saying?
Framme catching strays
Idk man, sounds like a skill issue. Jk. Thanks for trying this interesting challenge.
Honestly, skill issue in there somewhere probably
yo this title sucks. despicable clickbait
Literally not clickbait
In this video I highlight a challenge I believe MIGHT be impossible. I breakdown all the reasons why it might be impossible whilst showing my own attempt to demonstrate my experience and provide a concrete example, and furthermore, I use the word MIGHT in the title which is a very important qualifier there as I myself am not fully convinced that it is impossible, which I do also touch on in the video. If that's what you call 'clickbait' then I'm sorry for you buddy, but you should probably get off RUclips as most videos might be clickbait in your eyes. Please learn to use your brain correctly before commenting something this dumb next time :)
@@kratosmvn_but you're not actually describing what the challenge is in the title or thumbnail. The only way for a prospective viewer to know what the infeasible challenge is is by clicking onto the video. Vaguely insinuating about a topic without elaboration on what the topic is is the textbook definition of clickbait. Same tactic as those "You won't believe THIS crazy trick" articles online tabloids put out.
Vid's good and all, but the title could be more specific to not bait clicks. The rest of your challenge highlight videos don't seem to do this, just this one is at fault.