Fire Emblem Thread II: Stalwarts Unite!

[Mando Knight]

O.o I remember Meg being terrible. Like god-awful. A knight that wanted to be a myrmidon. But hey whatever works.

The bad characters in Radiant Dawn aren't bad because they'll never hit their stat caps even if you work with them. They're bad because they need so much work to get into the game that the "good" characters are already playing.

Ilyana, Meg, Vika, Tormod, and Astrid are normally trash tier or near-trash tier, but if you know how to obsessively babysit them, they can become the powerhouses that Mia, Gatrie, and Haar start out as and that Edward can become very quickly.

Meg stands out as the strongest non-Laguz female in the game: if fed, she can be as strong as Gatrie (and cap her Luck), but with a bit more speed and Resistance at the cost of Defense and Skill, which makes her a little better than Gatrie overall in the end, if you aren't also bringing both Mia and Edward. However, it's fairly hard to use Meg in most of the maps that she's available in, since there's quite a few with terrain that slows down armor, or enemies with enough damage and speed that her increased base Strength and Defense over Edward is less useful than his higher Speed and Skill... plus, he has much higher Strength growth, which is just as crucial in the early game.

Vika and Tormod I've already covered as being trash tier by level appearances alone, but their stats aren't terrible, just outclassed by the Greil Mercenaries. Ilyana has the unfortunate double-nerf compared to PoR by having lower caps than Soren or Micaiah basically across the board, as well as the severe nerf that Thunder received in RD, which is basically only redeemed in the one section of the endgame where you have a room full of nothing but dragons.

Astrid is definitely one of the weakest Silver Knights (Fiona is definitely worse, though, particularly since she's harder to work with), but like Ilyana she can be put to enough work that she won't be terrible. Her caps are very similar to the Pegasi, which aren't considered bad units AFAIK... though they have a definite advantage from a higher Res cap, Triangle Attack, and flight.

[Sylthia]

The bad characters in Radiant Dawn aren't bad because they'll never hit their stat caps even if you work with them. They're bad because they need so much work to get into the game that the "good" characters are already playing.

Ilyana, Meg, Vika, Tormod, and Astrid are normally trash tier or near-trash tier, but if you know how to obsessively babysit them, they can become the powerhouses that Mia, Gatrie, and Haar start out as and that Edward can become very quickly.

Meg stands out as the strongest non-Laguz female in the game: if fed, she can be as strong as Gatrie (and cap her Luck), but with a bit more speed and Resistance at the cost of Defense and Skill, which makes her a little better than Gatrie overall in the end, if you aren't also bringing both Mia and Edward. However, it's fairly hard to use Meg in most of the maps that she's available in, since there's quite a few with terrain that slows down armor, or enemies with enough damage and speed that her increased base Strength and Defense over Edward is less useful than his higher Speed and Skill... plus, he has much higher Strength growth, which is just as crucial in the early game.

Vika and Tormod I've already covered as being trash tier by level appearances alone, but their stats aren't terrible, just outclassed by the Greil Mercenaries. Ilyana has the unfortunate double-nerf compared to PoR by having lower caps than Soren or Micaiah basically across the board, as well as the severe nerf that Thunder received in RD, which is basically only redeemed in the one section of the endgame where you have a room full of nothing but dragons.

Astrid is definitely one of the weakest Silver Knights (Fiona is definitely worse, though, particularly since she's harder to work with), but like Ilyana she can be put to enough work that she won't be terrible. Her caps are very similar to the Pegasi, which aren't considered bad units AFAIK... though they have a definite advantage from a higher Res cap, Triangle Attack, and flight.

I think the disjointed nature and separated army mechanic of RD leads to a lot of these issues as well.

[Geno9999]

Also, been replaying FE7 and recently finished Lyn Hard Mode. With the the obvious exception of Wallace, the unit with the highest defense was Nils. Nils also had the highest resistance bar none. What the heck, RNG? Also figured out that Florina can bum rush the archer in the Ballista in Ch 8. other than that, anyone have suggestions on who to build up to bring to endgame? Canas is a definite, while I'm going to try and bring Batre if I can.

While everyone else comments on your RD endgame team, the FE7 endgame team that I usually roll out are the Lords, Lucius, Oswin, Priscilla, Raven and/or Guy, Canas, Nils, Barte, and Athos.

[ZeltArruin]

While everyone else comments on your RD endgame team, the FE7 endgame team that I usually roll out are the Lords, Lucius, Oswin, Priscilla, Raven and/or Guy, Canas, Nils, Barte, and Athos.

I really like Bartre, but his 3 base speed and 0 promotion gain in speed makes me sad. Why don't Warriors get +3 spd like knights?

[Geno9999]

I really like Bartre, but his 3 base speed and 0 promotion gain in speed makes me sad. Why don't Warriors get +3 spd like knights?

Yeah, though if Barte doesn't work out too well for you, Dart is a good choice too, though the Berserker is limited to only Axes.

[ZeltArruin]

Yeah, though if Barte doesn't work out too well for you, Dart is a good choice too, though the Berserker is limited to only Axes.

Geitz is pretty good too.

[Sylthia]

Geitz is pretty good too.

I think Raven can use Axes, too, after promotion. I always tend to use Heroes in the games they're in. There's lots of good Axe users in FE7, though.

Units that I tend to use in my FE7 playthroughs...
Lords
Erk
Nino
Lucius
Priscilla
Raven
Canas
Kent and/or Sain, usually both
Oswin
Matthew
Florina

I was never big on Myrmidons. I use them sometimes, but usually stray away from Crit/Evasion reliant classes. I don't like leaving too much to chance.

[Laughing Dog]

O.o I remember Meg being terrible. Like god-awful. A knight that wanted to be a myrmidon. But hey whatever works.

Besides the lords I'd bring Raven, Pent the supa sage, One of Lyn's two cavaliers as they are rather reliable, and Matthew (if you can survive getting him leveled on hard mode) or...Crap the really good assassin that evades my memory. They were quite reliable for me. Lucius would also be pretty good.

Actually, Meg is one of my favorite units, for exactly that reason.

Also, for the FE7 team: I really don't use Raven all that much, so I'll give him a try. I prefer not to use Pent unless I am badly hurting for a anima mage or healer. Matthew is one of my best units right now. The assassin's name is Jaffar. Lucius is a good unit, and the best non-Athos light magic wielder.

While everyone else comments on your RD endgame team, the FE7 endgame team that I usually roll out are the Lords, Lucius, Oswin, Priscilla, Raven and/or Guy, Canas, Nils, Barte, and Athos.

I'll give Oswin a whirl this time around. I also need to make sure I add to the usual question of what units should I use that I'm looking for oddball choices.

And in other news: I have finally started playing FE 4. My first impressions: I really need to learn how to read Japanese and Holy Crap, these maps are huge!

Edit: Also, in RD: I hate Ena. Stupid Red Dragon with White dragon growths. And funky stat caps as well.

[ZeltArruin]

If you haven't played Hectors mode, do so. If you have and haven't played Hector Hard Mode, do so. Without arena abuse, they'll kinda change your opinions on some characters.

[Mando Knight]

Edit: Also, in RD: I hate Ena. Stupid Red Dragon with White dragon growths. And funky stat caps as well.

Laguz in general aren't really worth using if you have to level them.

Kurth, for example. He has excellent caps and decent growths (for a Laguz), and the dragon auras are all useful, but except for Night Tide, flight, and the ranged attack, he's mostly inferior to Caineghis even after he gets his own Formshift (though having 38 maximum Resist instead of the Lion King's 24 is nice), mostly only breaking even if you spend the Endgame farming him up to level 40 and SS-rank laser breath (is really aggravating: you're spending dozens of turns to get the 150 attacks he needs to level up to SS rank thanks to the strike's Weapon XP rate).

Or Ena, who grows Magic and Resistance because her dear old dad is a White (magic) dragon, while she's a Red (physical). At least that means she can equip Imbue to get ridiculous self-healing when transformed.

[Jermell]

Laguz in general aren't really worth using if you have to level them.

Kurth, for example. He has excellent caps and decent growths (for a Laguz), and the dragon auras are all useful, but except for Night Tide, flight, and the ranged attack, he's mostly inferior to Caineghis even after he gets his own Formshift (though having 38 maximum Resist instead of the Lion King's 24 is nice), mostly only breaking even if you spend the Endgame farming him up to level 40 and SS-rank laser breath (is really aggravating: you're spending dozens of turns to get the 150 attacks he needs to level up to SS rank thanks to the strike's Weapon XP rate).

Or Ena, who grows Magic and Resistance because her dear old dad is a White (magic) dragon, while she's a Red (physical). At least that means she can equip Imbue to get ridiculous self-healing when transformed.

Well comparing Kurth to Caineghis, the most OP unit in the game, is a bit unfair. Though the sea of useless/semi-useless laguz in RD really annoyed me. Ena's nod to her dad is amusing and honestly you weren't going to be using her unless you wanted to take advantage of the fact that the dragons won't attack her...which is pretty awful now that I think about it I shouldn't have done that.

[Mando Knight]

Well comparing Kurth to Caineghis, the most OP unit in the game, is a bit unfair.

At the same time, it's something you kinda have to consider, since he's competing for an endgame slot. He's more comparable to T3 Beorc than any other Laguz that isn't a Lion or a King, but he starts slow and inaccurate. 55 HP and 30 Str/Def/Res is nice, but 20 Speed just doesn't cut it at that point, and he needs his 95 accuracy laser to make up for his 16 Skill. When you get him, he's roughly equal to a 20/20/10 Meg (with Silver Sword) with -18 accuracy and -29 avoid that gets double-attacked by almost literally everything... with flight and a 1-2 range attack as compensation.

On the other hand, if you've saved some stat-up items, he does essentially get double the effect compared to any Beorc, and if he's fed enough, he can fight almost as well as Caineghis. It just takes about a hundred turns of him ineffectively flailing next to his dad in order to do so.

[ZeltArruin]

Well comparing Kurth to Caineghis, the most OP unit in the game, is a bit unfair.

I'd have to say flying, canto and innate pavise make Tibarn far better than Caineghis, that and two chapters more availability. Of course, Caineghis doesn't have to waste a skill slot on canto, so he can have crazier load outs, or take pavise, but I guess arguing skills goes both ways?

[Rodin]

Okay, Lunatic Fort Steiger can just go straight to hell. Soooo many tier 2 units - I even sat on the 4 staircases and still got totally overwhelmed. Fortunately I'm on Casual and the Donnel/Chrom/Avatar combo cleaned things up, but geez that map is hard.

I'm truly baffled at how you're supposed to get a full squad through on Lunatic without excessive DLC level-grinding. Yeah, you can use a tiny squad of super-heroes to get it done, but that would just feel unsatisfying I think. I guess it would take poring over your unit lines and planning them down the last gene, while my current "strategy" for that is whether I can have every character get into a relationship I haven't seen before.

Still, playing on Casual on a difficulty hard enough to really threaten your units is a very different experience. You wind up with a lot of heroic last stands as you throw a character to the wolves in order to delay and injure the enemy while you regroup the rest of your forces. Finally starting to get a group of characters that can actually contribute rather than just kill a couple guys before getting crushed, and it feels good!

At least Fort Steiger is going to be the last one with massive bum-rush levels of reinforcements for a while. There's only the volcano and then I should be able to start gathering the rest of the kids, and then the battle for the gates which has a load of cavalry but fairly controllable waves of reinforcements (unlike Steiger's "everything on the map bum-rushes you at once, plus 30 guys from underground").

[Sylthia]

Okay, Lunatic Fort Steiger can just go straight to hell. Soooo many tier 2 units - I even sat on the 4 staircases and still got totally overwhelmed. Fortunately I'm on Casual and the Donnel/Chrom/Avatar combo cleaned things up, but geez that map is hard.

I'm truly baffled at how you're supposed to get a full squad through on Lunatic without excessive DLC level-grinding. Yeah, you can use a tiny squad of super-heroes to get it done, but that would just feel unsatisfying I think. I guess it would take poring over your unit lines and planning them down the last gene, while my current "strategy" for that is whether I can have every character get into a relationship I haven't seen before.

Still, playing on Casual on a difficulty hard enough to really threaten your units is a very different experience. You wind up with a lot of heroic last stands as you throw a character to the wolves in order to delay and injure the enemy while you regroup the rest of your forces. Finally starting to get a group of characters that can actually contribute rather than just kill a couple guys before getting crushed, and it feels good!

At least Fort Steiger is going to be the last one with massive bum-rush levels of reinforcements for a while. There's only the volcano and then I should be able to start gathering the rest of the kids, and then the battle for the gates which has a load of cavalry but fairly controllable waves of reinforcements (unlike Steiger's "everything on the map bum-rushes you at once, plus 30 guys from underground").

Casual mode has definitely grown on me. It's certainly saved me many game hours of reset time.

[Rising Phoenix]

Okay, Lunatic Fort Steiger can just go straight to hell. Soooo many tier 2 units - I even sat on the 4 staircases and still got totally overwhelmed. Fortunately I'm on Casual and the Donnel/Chrom/Avatar combo cleaned things up, but geez that map is hard.

I'm truly baffled at how you're supposed to get a full squad through on Lunatic without excessive DLC level-grinding. Yeah, you can use a tiny squad of super-heroes to get it done, but that would just feel unsatisfying I think. I guess it would take poring over your unit lines and planning them down the last gene, while my current "strategy" for that is whether I can have every character get into a relationship I haven't seen before.

Still, playing on Casual on a difficulty hard enough to really threaten your units is a very different experience. You wind up with a lot of heroic last stands as you throw a character to the wolves in order to delay and injure the enemy while you regroup the rest of your forces. Finally starting to get a group of characters that can actually contribute rather than just kill a couple guys before getting crushed, and it feels good!

At least Fort Steiger is going to be the last one with massive bum-rush levels of reinforcements for a while. There's only the volcano and then I should be able to start gathering the rest of the kids, and then the battle for the gates which has a load of cavalry but fairly controllable waves of reinforcements (unlike Steiger's "everything on the map bum-rushes you at once, plus 30 guys from underground").

Your objective in Lunatic mode is to get as many overpowered characters overlevelled asap. For my current run I've picked MU, Sumia, Tharja, Tiki, Lissa, Libra and Panne. The kids I've picked are lucina, cynthia, morgan and owain. Chrom Married Sumia and MU (+speed, -skill) married Lucina for opness all around.

Once MU is overlevelled you can stick him as a support bot on folks you want to baby. Baby 1-2 units per map. If you do this, you will be able to beat risen skirmishes soon enough. Also galeforce is your friend...I admit that getting it on Lissa took way longer than I would have liked to recruit Owain.

Also, new comer is the best way to play repeats as it doesn't cause you to pull your hair.

[Rodin]

How do you grind enough to beat Risen (again, without using DLC)? By Demon's Ingle the Risen I'm seeing on the board are max stats, 4 abilities each. My Hard mode characters with max stats would struggle to solo a map like that.

Basically, every time I went to try and do Risen, they were 20 levels higher than me and even MU couldn't scratch them while they could one-shot or double me in return. That's why I've felt forced into doing DLC grinding - there's no legitimate way for me to attempt to grind otherwise.

Of course, it's possible that the Risen are using my average character level to spawn, which could just be the problem? I'm not sure how the game calculates that stuff.

[Anarion]

How do you grind enough to beat Risen (again, without using DLC)? By Demon's Ingle the Risen I'm seeing on the board are max stats, 4 abilities each. My Hard mode characters with max stats would struggle to solo a map like that.

Basically, every time I went to try and do Risen, they were 20 levels higher than me and even MU couldn't scratch them while they could one-shot or double me in return. That's why I've felt forced into doing DLC grinding - there's no legitimate way for me to attempt to grind otherwise.

Of course, it's possible that the Risen are using my average character level to spawn, which could just be the problem? I'm not sure how the game calculates that stuff.

You're playing on Hard? You're just not supposed to fight them. The point on the harder difficulties is that you can't grind (without buying the DLC that lets you grind).

[Rodin]

You're playing on Hard? You're just not supposed to fight them. The point on the harder difficulties is that you can't grind (without buying the DLC that lets you grind).

Lunatic rather than Hard (Hard is the intended difficulty with Normal being easy), but yeah.

I'm just amazed that people are capable of playing at that level. Even with DLC grinding I find it tough to keep up. It is giving me what I wanted though - Hard stops being challenging about the point you get your full squad of children, and it turns the late game into a bit of a cakewalk.

My way of doing things this time around:

1) Play a map, get curbstomped into the ground.

2) Adjust team members and tactics.

3) Get curbstomped slightly less, but only have brutally OP characters left before I'm halfway done with the mission. Reset game.

4) Level grind a little bit with my weaker characters.

5) Play the map and lose 90% of my force, but manage to just about squeak through with 4 or 5 units still standing. I also only lose most of my force right at the very end, when the game decides I'm taking too long and bum rushes me.

6) Repeat.

------

And it's dead fun doing it that way. I know I'm not doing it properly, but it's just more fun if I'm not restricted in my character relationships/classes to what the absolute top-tier people use. I don't think I could compete at that level anyway.

The hardest part about it is not over-grinding people. I've pretty much retired Donnel for that reason, although I broke him out for friggin' Fort Steiger since there was no way I was getting through that stage without him.

[Anarion]

I finished a lunatic run, dong some DLC grinding. I think breeding for proper children is actually the most important part. Also manakete. They rock.

[Rodin]

The one thing I am doing with the kids is making sure they all start with Galeforce. This I suspect is making my game harder because having 6 Dark Fliers going at once ain't exactly ideal in terms of force diversity. Almost there though, I just have to get Maribelle and Olivia with it for the parents and then the only two remaining people to grind up to Galeforce will be Lucina and Kjelle.

I think Laurent is probably screwed with Gaius as his father, but oh well. He's boring anyway.

[Sylthia]

The one thing I am doing with the kids is making sure they all start with Galeforce. This I suspect is making my game harder because having 6 Dark Fliers going at once ain't exactly ideal in terms of force diversity. Almost there though, I just have to get Maribelle and Olivia with it for the parents and then the only two remaining people to grind up to Galeforce will be Lucina and Kjelle.

I think Laurent is probably screwed with Gaius as his father, but oh well. He's boring anyway.

Ah, I remember marrying Gaius and Donnel off to Tharja and Sully to get the maximum amount of kids with Galeforce.

[Rising Phoenix]

Lunatic rather than Hard (Hard is the intended difficulty with Normal being easy), but yeah.

I'm just amazed that people are capable of playing at that level. Even with DLC grinding I find it tough to keep up. It is giving me what I wanted though - Hard stops being challenging about the point you get your full squad of children, and it turns the late game into a bit of a cakewalk.

My way of doing things this time around:

1) Play a map, get curbstomped into the ground.

2) Adjust team members and tactics.

3) Get curbstomped slightly less, but only have brutally OP characters left before I'm halfway done with the mission. Reset game.

4) Level grind a little bit with my weaker characters.

5) Play the map and lose 90% of my force, but manage to just about squeak through with 4 or 5 units still standing. I also only lose most of my force right at the very end, when the game decides I'm taking too long and bum rushes me.

6) Repeat.

------

And it's dead fun doing it that way. I know I'm not doing it properly, but it's just more fun if I'm not restricted in my character relationships/classes to what the absolute top-tier people use. I don't think I could compete at that level anyway.

The hardest part about it is not over-grinding people. I've pretty much retired Donnel for that reason, although I broke him out for friggin' Fort Steiger since there was no way I was getting through that stage without him.

Here's what I do.

Map 1:

Feed all kills to MU and Chrom. They should be level 4-5 by the end of it. Abuse the water movement of MU Chrom on this map.

Map 2:

Pair Chrom/MU with Freddy. Camp them on a fort. Chrom/MU should get most of the kills this map.

Map 3: This is the hardest map in the game. period.

Give the elixir to Frederick. Pair him with Sully and send him all the way just north of the merc on the forest tile. Pray that the rng doesn't screw you over. Feed the odd kill to MU/Chrom.
Once the initial danger is done you can consider starting to train another unit. My recommendation are either Stalh or Miriel. Stalh makes for an excellent Myrmidon (he's tankier and dodgier than lonku thanks to his skills), Miriel can abuse Nosferatu.

Map 4: Speak to Kellam with Chrom and pair up. Have Kellam transfer Chrom to Freddy. Give Freddy Kellam's javelin as well. pair MU with a mounted unit and whoever else you choose to bring. Once everyone is in place, ensure that Chrom has his rapier equipped (by this stage both MU and Chrom should be level 10 or so), and have Freddy Attack one of the archest from melee range with the Javelin. During the enemy phase the enemy units will attack Freddy and with the help of Chrom 1-2 or two should be dead. Mop the rest up with your units and place Freddy within the range of only the first lance and archer that will be charging you from the RIGHT side of the map. Keep falling back and mop up any struglers. Now the rest of this map is easy thanks to the choke points and is an excellent opportunity to train ranged units- pair them with kellam and have them counter attack. Frederic- or optimally Chrom/MU should be buff enough by this stage to be able to handle themselves.

After this map you get a second seal as a renown award. Use it on MU to class changed them into a merc- Armsthrift and Sol are EXCELLENT skills to have. Spend your stat boosters accordingly. if MU is female your next reclass will be darkflier for galeforce. After that you can do whatever class you want.

By now Chrom and MU should be beasts. Pair them with Freddy and do a risen map with just these two units on a defensive structure. You should be able to get clears np. Of course it will level only them, but by doing this you can use them-especially MU- to baby others into monsters on story mode maps.

With regards to Chrom's wife- Sumia is the easiest one to take advantage of with easy access to galeforce, she also boosts Chrom's speed. Cynthia benefits greatly from bowbreaker as well. The second best option is Olivia, but getting her to learn galeforce without grinding dlc and in time to get it on Inigo is a pain.

Other units that are worth the effort:
-Tharja and Henry- Nosferattu abuse is OP. They don't need any class skills but lifetaker, counter and wrath on Henry make him terrifying of course he won't be able to use tomes while you level his alt classes.
-Nowi- Reclass her for some skills, Lifetaker is hilarious op on manakete
-Panne- She's a monster with a few levels under her belt
-Libra and Ana- easy to use staffbots and in the later case ease of access to chest
-Cordelia- Access to armsthrift, galeforce and sol and one of the better kids stat wise.
-Tiki- same reasons as Nowi plus she doesn't need any training to be a monster.
-The kids- pass galeforce to them and go to town. If you manage to do this their mums are op by now anyway.

One final tip- Use strength and defense tonics. Also if you see seals on sale by wandering merchants get them and promote class class change your units as you see fit.

[Sylthia]

I started a Lunatic Run. I've made it past chapter 4, so I guess I'm past the worst of it.

[Rodin]

Neat info, Phoenix!

I guess my problem turned out to be being in Casual and being willing to lose units, then. Odd, but there it is. By having a large number of level 3-4 champs instead of just 2-3 level 10+ champions, I missed out on the opportunity to have a pair of champions tough enough to solo early Risen, and then BAM goes your (legitimate) level-grinding opportunities since the Risen scale exponentially into the stratosphere as the game goes on.

Definitely agree on chapter 3 being the most brutal. Even with a willingness to abuse Frederick and lose every character other than Avatar/Chrom, it still took me over a dozen attempts and I almost gave up several times.

I'm finally starting to hit critical mass in terms of catching up to the enhanced stats. Recruited Severa successfully and only lost Kellam in the fight, and even then only because I stupidly exposed him to a Trickster with a Levin sword. Playing on Lunatic has certainly enhanced my appreciation for the weapons triangle (Hit rate actually matters now!), and I actually pay attention to using the best weapons for my troops instead of just sticking Silver weapons on everybody and going to town.

Brady's chapter is up next, and I think the villagers are getting thrown to the wolves from my opening attempt at the map. I just don't have the strength to defend all 4 openings at once like on lower difficulties. Then again, maybe I should get Nah first...her chapter has a lot more enemies, and they're higher level, but at least they don't mass rush you like with Brady. Hmmm.

I also think I know what my next run is going to be, when I inevitably decide to restart. Hard mode rather than Lunatic, but in Classic with no reloading (if someone dies, they're dead) and no grinding of any form. That means no DLC, no Wireless (except maybe for the Renown rewards), and most importantly no Risen. I'm curious to see how much harder that makes it - on previous hardcore runs I typically lose someone on chapter 5 (that annoying one where you get Maribelle and Ricken) or chapter 6 (protecting Emmeryn), and then after that I'm in good shape until Fort Steiger and the one right before it at the base of the tree. By that point I already don't care, since I've got the kids on the way and the parents are more expendable.

The problem is by that point in the game you're pretty much swimming in Risen, which means loads and loads of levels and gold. Hard to say how much lower level I'd be without it...

Tch, now that I'm thinking about it the overwhelming desire to go attempt that instead is taking root. I think the real reason I rarely finish the game is OOH SOMETHING SHINY!!

[Rising Phoenix]

Neat info, Phoenix!

I guess my problem turned out to be being in Casual and being willing to lose units, then. Odd, but there it is. By having a large number of level 3-4 champs instead of just 2-3 level 10+ champions, I missed out on the opportunity to have a pair of champions tough enough to solo early Risen, and then BAM goes your (legitimate) level-grinding opportunities since the Risen scale exponentially into the stratosphere as the game goes on.

Definitely agree on chapter 3 being the most brutal. Even with a willingness to abuse Frederick and lose every character other than Avatar/Chrom, it still took me over a dozen attempts and I almost gave up several times.

I'm finally starting to hit critical mass in terms of catching up to the enhanced stats. Recruited Severa successfully and only lost Kellam in the fight, and even then only because I stupidly exposed him to a Trickster with a Levin sword. Playing on Lunatic has certainly enhanced my appreciation for the weapons triangle (Hit rate actually matters now!), and I actually pay attention to using the best weapons for my troops instead of just sticking Silver weapons on everybody and going to town.

Brady's chapter is up next, and I think the villagers are getting thrown to the wolves from my opening attempt at the map. I just don't have the strength to defend all 4 openings at once like on lower difficulties. Then again, maybe I should get Nah first...her chapter has a lot more enemies, and they're higher level, but at least they don't mass rush you like with Brady. Hmmm.

I also think I know what my next run is going to be, when I inevitably decide to restart. Hard mode rather than Lunatic, but in Classic with no reloading (if someone dies, they're dead) and no grinding of any form. That means no DLC, no Wireless (except maybe for the Renown rewards), and most importantly no Risen. I'm curious to see how much harder that makes it - on previous hardcore runs I typically lose someone on chapter 5 (that annoying one where you get Maribelle and Ricken) or chapter 6 (protecting Emmeryn), and then after that I'm in good shape until Fort Steiger and the one right before it at the base of the tree. By that point I already don't care, since I've got the kids on the way and the parents are more expendable.

The problem is by that point in the game you're pretty much swimming in Risen, which means loads and loads of levels and gold. Hard to say how much lower level I'd be without it...

Tch, now that I'm thinking about it the overwhelming desire to go attempt that instead is taking root. I think the real reason I rarely finish the game is OOH SOMETHING SHINY!!

Yeah, having a couple of over-leveled champions will ease lunatic considerably and yes forged weapons help a lot as do rescue staffs (send someone in for a kill- pull them back if they are in range of too many meanies). I also gave Olivia the boots so that she can keep up with units to given them dances. Also pick one or two units to level pair map- e.g. When I do Owain's map I have him and whoever I have picked to be his wife solo the entire map. He's usually a level 7-8 Swordmaster by the end of it and very useable on the story maps thereafter.

If you think Lunatic is tough, Lunatic+ is...an exercise in patience. And by that I mean you will get an exponential desire to toss your 3ds against the wall multiple times...

[Rodin]

Heh, Lunatic has something I wanted to try since I first beat the game on Hard. For Lunatic+ I just watched a Youtube video of someone playing it and broke down into hysterical laughter. Good gravy but that looks tough.

The guy I was watching was doing Chapter 5, and had obviously patiently leveled up his entire crew from Risen battles so that they were all level 20 Tier 1. He had them all decked out with the Renown Reward and Bonus Box legendary weapons. And it was still nail-bitingly close.

[Rising Phoenix]

After finishing my no DLC run of Lunatic yesterday, I started a Lunatic+ mode with +Def, -Skill Avatar. I got VERY lucky on the second map and got no enemies with Luna+ skills. As for map 3 I only had to sack Sully to get through (casual mode I love you).

Currently I've just beaten Marth, MU is sitting at level 19 with 20 DEF and 35 HP. My plan is to Marry Chrom to Olivia and marry MU to Inigo and pass Rightful king to Morgan. I am aiming for as many Lethality bow users as possible this run. Why bow you ask? Because you cannot counter with them on melee range which in turn means that you don't get hit by counter... which is everywhere.

Am I going to use DLC for this run? Yes. Absolutely. If the game cheats. I am allowed to cheat too...

[Mando Knight]

Am I going to use DLC for this run? Yes. Absolutely. If the game cheats. I am allowed to cheat too...

Bridal party! (I'd seriously consider it as part of the strategy, at least, given that it gives a lot higher Defense and Resist caps than Assassin, and gives access to a passive heal and staff proficiency...)

[Sylthia]

I started DLC grinding on my Lunatic file. Next I'm going to try to recruit Donnel. Any tips?