Johnnie

Camilla reclassed to Wyvern Lord can make great use of it. Add a tonic and an Odin/Leo pair up if you want. Better hit than the Bolt Axe and she'll have better physical defenses. Also Soleil as Selena's child or Shigure especially. The best Shigure I ever had was Jakob's son reclassed to Wyvern Lord; he had the bulk and strength to rival Xander and speed to match Kaze by end game with decent magic. Investment was surprisingly minimal since I did his Paralogue incredibly early. Too bad it's so tedious to partner those two.

Sophie acquired. Only got the Energy Drop but that's the most important part. Brought Kaze along for training; as much as I love flying Mozu I may slot him in instead. Sophie and Kaze got a level with Str and Spd, Mozu got Str and unimportant stuff and Beruka got Str and Def. I also grabbed Nichol. His bases aren't the best but another flying mage may be useful.

On mobile for this post. Hello Let's Play! Chapter 13 was an s show. Niles missed the third charging mage and nearly died after getting hit by Orochi. Took the support of Beruka and Jakob as well as 2 charges of the Physic staff to keep him alive. Due to the time lost I had to rush the west side before Takumi was dealt with and lost Charlotte to the charging cavaliers. She would have been instantly benched anyway and I still have her axe to sell so no real harm done. Lots of levels were gained and every house visited. After that mess, I decided to start promotions. Effie and Silas both become Great Knights, Elise is a Strategist and Niles becomes a Bow Knight alongside Jakob. Effie eats the Arms Scroll to get out of double E. @starburst Not sure how you're killing Takumi before the charging Wyverns move considering they move on turn 1. I can believe he's dead before they become an issue. I do tend to approach most maps very conservatively, but now that I've lost a unit that may change. @joshcja I still have trouble using my staves. I finally broke myself of hoarding boosters but I'm sitting on a full Freeze and Enfeeble for no reason. I'll probably use the Enfeeble on Chapter 14 for the boss capture but I should have used both last chapter. Also Sophie has been born. With 15 Str and Def and 13 Spd at level 13 she's definitely worth using. Odin is hanging by a thread; he finally has double digit speed but he's severely lacking in important things. I may delegate him to Elise's backpack until Ophelia is born but I doubt I'll waste a seal on him. This is the worst one I've ever had. I'm also sorely tempted to dig into my bonuses and unit log. I have every VP/BP, Path bonus and some awesome skills for units like Jakob and Silas. I may in the future but I'm holding off for now. Also I've scrapped plans to train Peri. I'm tempted since I've always benched her, but I have enough awesome horse units already. Also Benny gained a level but who cares. He'll be deployed for Kitsune Lair and spend the rest of the game on the bench.

Chapter 12 is done. I managed to feed a level to Peri who gained Str + Spd. I messed up positioning at the end of the map trying to feed her one more level which necessitated burning a Rescue charge in order to clear the map without losing anyone. I ignored both Saizo and Ryoma as I didn't feel the benefits were worth it, though the Flame Shuriken would have made good vendor trash since I've burned so much funds on seals already. Honestly, I forgot how much of Effie's Def growth comes from her class. Still, we'll find out after Chapter 13 because I should be ready to recruit Sophie by then. Either she'll be worth using or not. I'm training Jakob for long term viability. I was hoping to stack 3 breakers on him, since I usually don't class change him until after he reaches level 15. My regret on this run was not using a Heart Seal on Chapter 7 for Great Knight. This Jakob has refused to gain any Def but has passable Str and Spd. An early GK promotion would have given him Luna and Armored Blow which would fit his uses much better right now. Bow Knight will still give him Shelter utility, Shuriken Breaker for every ninja after Mokushu, and 2-range doubling with a forged Bronze or Iron. The benefits he brings in AS with Corrin as well as keeping Gentlehomme on him make him worth further investment for me. As for Silas, I'm not so sure if I'm going to keep him around. I'm not comfortable trying to rig VoF for him in an Iron Man and his Spd is non-existent. I'll definitely keep using him until Chapter 16, but if he isn't near even to Xander (minus Siegfried) he'll probably be dropped. I'm using all of the Royals because I like most of them and they generally make things easier. besides, I may try out Wyvern Leo because I've always wanted to. Here's a stat breakdown: I did hand out my boosters; Odin got the Dust, Niles and Silas got an Icon each, and I honestly don't remember who got the others. Peri and Dwyer are solidly on the B team, though right now I may replace Silas with Peri depending on how her next level looks or I may use both as I've never really given much thought to Peri. Other than Jakob, no one has been promoted or sealed in any way; if Effie and Silas were both made Great Knights now Effie would be the statistically better unit, only losing out on Res and Elbow Room. I think she would make a great Paladin. If Beruka was Master Sealed to a Wyvern Lord now she would still be slower and weaker than Camilla. Odin's Spd is becoming a huge problem; I don't want to have to use a Speedwing on him but I may resort to that if necessary. I also have Haitaka and 2 Lunge ninjas; I may bring a Lunge Ninja to the cave to deal with the boss provided I could keep him alive long enough to get Kotaro to move. Mozu has sat out Chapter 12 and will be sitting out 13, so you can see she's had little trouble catching up to the rest of the team. I've had more resets due to unit death against Takumi than any other character in the game; he's simply too strong and too fast to tank and it's hard to get the flyers in range without losing out on a village on the west side. My strategy is simple and very crude, but effective. Niles with Beruka's backup tanks the mages to west; after the starting Knights and Wyvern/Knight pairs are dealt with, Effie tanks Takumi with a Silas pair up. Effie also has the support of Jakob, Camilla, Elise and Rally Def from Haitaka. That only leaves me with 1 unit left to bring along, and Odin is perfect for Nos-tanking the Knights. Benny and Charlotte immediately head west for support over there and usually sit around doing nothing. I got a Seed of Trust from a Castle event which I will be using on Silas and Effie to cement their union before Chapter 14; if it wasn't for the possibility of getting an S-Rank this chapter Silas would be sitting it out instead of Azura and I'm holding off on his promotion until I see how Sophie shakes out. I sold my free Steel weapons (Sword, Lance, Fimbulvetr and Shuriken) to forge a +1 Iron Knife and a +2 Iron Sword. I'm sitting on a little over 7,000 gold but I need to buy some Seals soon.

The Gaiden requirement does reward Iron Man runs, in a way. But unless you're bad at Fire Emblem you're not going to see most of them.

I don't normally plan for children because I find them to be lackluster and doing a full recruitment no-grind is beyond tedious in Fates. I do attempt to get Ophelia, and Dwyer and Kana are for items/experience. I may grind some pairings in the mid-game if I'm falling behind on stats but right now everyone is fine. I also don't use backpacks. I use Guard Stance if the situation calls for it, but if a unit can't hold their own then they hit the bench. I also always go full deployment on the majority of maps; the only exception is usually Kitsune Lair because that map is bull. Chapter 10 went exactly as I predicted. I give Camilla the Mag tonic because otherwise she 2 rounds the Onis and risks dying for lack of support. No one ever got in significant danger and every enemy but Takumi was killed and every house visited. Mozu is level 7, Beruka is 10 and everyone else is 12+. Jakob sealed to Bow Knight before the map and made a joke of the left. I'll be doing Kana's Paralogue next and Chapter 11. There's nothing special in either, so I'll be back for Chapter 12. I'm about to start Chapter 12. Mozu is level 12 and is tied for lowest level after Azura. Jakob is finally a Paladin for Elbow Room; he'll be going back to Bow Knight to have Shuriken Breaker for Ninja Cave. Effie is level 16 so Great Knight she goes. Her and Silas are at A rank so I'm probably going to have a defensive Sophia soon.

@joshcja Odin has a natural 10 Defense right now. He did manage to get 11 magic at level 11, so he's definitely ready to facetank the next 4 maps. @starburst I don't feed Mozu during her Paralogue. I don't rush it either so I can give a kill to her if the opportunity arises. I actually managed to get her to level 2 during her recruitment which is rare for me. I feed Mozu during the game. She usually ends up a couple levels behind everyone else by the end. Right now with a Str tonic she can one shot every pegasus on the map and can easily get another 3 or 4 levels in the process. As for pairings, I don't really have any others planned. Effie desperately wants a horse, so I'm hoping to marry her to Silas or Xander. Silas would also really appreciate a set of wings, so Mozu, Beruka or Camilla would be good wives. It's going to come down to who remains useful in the coming chapters. I also nabbed Haitaka, but I don't need him until Chapter 13. Edit: Thinking about it, I probably do more preparation for Chapter 10 than any other map I've played in the series. Camilla needs an Iron Axe for more reliable hit rates and doubling on every enemy on the map; a Str and Mag tonic help as well. Give her a Concoction and she can solo every Oni on the right as well as Oboro and the random pegasus. Odin might need to use a Vulnerary once to solo the archers on the right side. He's going to 2 round them, but it's a defend map so speed doesn't matter. Niles and Mozu are here to take out the pegs that beeline for the center with Azura around to double their killing power. Effie with an attack partner can usually one-shot Hinata or come close and the ninjas can't damage her at all even with debuffs. Jakob can't die to the western Onis as long as he stays behind Corrin who can one-round all of them with minimal damage in return. Getting Dwyer's Physic staff means Elise can safely heal anyone who needs it from the center so she doesn't need to be exposed at all. The most stressful part of the whole map is turns 2-5 when containing the Onis, Pegs, and the second wave of Ninjas and Spear Fighters. The first wave is easily weakened by Niles with the center ballista, and the Ninjas die on EP since he's their only target. That said, Odin and Silas eat a Def tonic just in case; Mozu takes a Str tonic in case I did the math wrong; Azura holds 2 tonics, an Iron Axe and a Concoction for Camilla and Niles holds a Hand Axe and a Skill tonic for Beruka. Nyx comes along just to make use of the Fire Orb. Haitaka would be nice to use here but my frontliners have too much defense and it would lower the kills on EP. Also, I do plan on pairing Odin and Elise. Elise would like to become a Dark Knight one day and Ophelia benefits best from her.

Yeah, it's hard to squeeze in an hour or two of free time, but things have lightened up a bit now that Christmas is done. Went ahead and cleared a few more maps; Paralogue 1, Chapter 9, Invasion 1 and Dwyer's Paralogue. Not much to write about any of them though. Everyone except Arthur, Mozu and Azura are level 10+. I may actually use Arthur since the 2 levels he got netted +2 Str and Def and +1 Spd. It's a shame he's sitting out Chapter 10. Mozu is a level 4 Archer, Effie has more Spd than Silas and Odin would rather gain Def than Mag. I even bothered to feed a level to Nyx which only netted Skl and Spd. I 2-Turned Dwyer's Paralogue with Niles who got a level and Effie gained 2 chucking javelins over the door at ninjas. I'll save Kana's Paralogue for after Beruka.

All this tiering discussion has made me want to use these characters I love. This isn't a LTC run or some kind of vaguely defined efficiency run, but there's minimal turns lost and I'm not going to boss/dance abuse or sit around for 6 turns grinding staff xp. I went with a +Str -Mag Corrin with the Mercenary talent. Not exactly optimal, but I like the skills it offers Jakob and it gives her a mount and bow for endgame while keeping Yato access. Chapter 7 is always simple. Corrin got a Speed bonus for her birthday allowing her to one round the faceless to the west. Silas tanks the north with VoF and Arthur and Elise support while Effie holds the south with Jakob. I could have ended the map 1 or 2 turns faster than I did, but I want Silas out of E Lances ASAP. Chapter 8 started out smooth enough. Elise grabs the first village while everyone else heads north. I made a cluster of the southeast village trying to feed a kill to Odin. No real harm done other than having to burn 2 charges of my Freeze staff. I bought a new one along with a Nosferatu for Odin. Corrin is level 10, Jakob, Silas, Effie and Niles are at 9, Arthur and Elise hit 8 and Odin ends at 6. I'm doing Mozu's Paralogue next before Chapter 9. I probably won't bother logging anything unless I screw up.

Elise is also a viable early promo. She'll have the same durability as Nyx but hit harder. I usually wait until after Chapter 12 though and most of my units wait until either Ninja Cave or Kitsune Lair. Regarding the Nyx discussion, I don't use backpacks. I know the game is balanced around it, but if a unit is mainly viable for the benefits they give another unit then I don't bother with them.

I have never understood Dark Knight Nyx. I've tried it a few times and I don't see it. Even promoted in Chapter 9, she's nearly useless in 10; 11 can be done with Effie, Silas and Niles so everyone is superfluous there; she can be a PP nuke on 12 with a forged Fire tome provided she can hit a damn thing; and she might do a bit of work in 13 and 14. I just don't see the point.

My biggest issues with Xander is that he's not impressive in his first 3 chapters and without his weapon he is mediocre at best. It's a useless argument since Xander is always going to carry Siegfried, but compared to Ryoma or even Camilla he is barely on par with your other units. I do agree he has the better personal compared to Silas. Hell, Peri's is better.

@starburst Beruka is easily overlooked since she joins with Camilla. She's a cross between Benny and Effie; a little less strength and defense than either, high utility and both Arthur and Silas want wings. At promotion she's a better tank than Camilla. I've never bothered to use Anna. I'll have to give her a shot on my next run. @Shadow Mir It's trivial to forge a +1 weapon without any sort of luck or grinding, and you're given enough free Iron weapons to make it worth the effort. A +1 Iron is 1 mt less than Steel with no speed penalty. @Jingle Bells Arthur is serviceable. He has a respectable Speed growth, great Strength and decent Skill and Defense. You're given 2 Goddess Icons before Chapter 10 to offset his growth and personal. He seals to Cavalier where he performs as a second Silas with similar Strength and Defense.

If I were to go Wyvern Elise, it would be on promotion to go straight to flight and tomes. Others seal ASAP to get her to C axes by Chapter 13 for the bolt axe. I prefer Dark Knight Elise. Better skill rank, she keeps the horse and she's Ophilia's best mom. Also, re: katanas vs. yumis. You get access to neither for the bulk of Conquest so their stat bonuses are irrelevant. For my money, bows are always better than swords when considering promotion paths. And since we're sharing personal tier lists: Niles - Niles tier. He exists outside of the list. S - Camilla, Elise, Azura, Jakob1 A - Silas, Beruka, Odin, Bowzu B - Royal brothers, Effie, Felicia1 (with Flame Shuriken), Wyvern Gunter Everyone else

@eclipse Even without forging, a Mechanist Kaze is one-rounding late game falcons and wyverns with a bronze bow. The Merc/Bow Knights might need 2 rounds due to lack of doubles. @Shadow Mir When you see Wyvern Elise, think Malig Knight. Flight, tomes and enough bulk to survive a stray hit or two. Not really my choice but it works for many.

Selena and Laslow are stuck at E on promotion regardless of which class they promote into. Mount movement, flyer deletion and a hard counter to shurikens are all useful in late game. Mechanist gives more bulk and the same benefits as Bow Knight. I think E rank is vastly overblown as a problem.

Is there any reason not to go Bow Knight for anyone? For that matter, why wouldn't Kaze want to be a Mechanist?

Camilla is definitely S tier. She's the Ryoma of Conquest. You could bench her until everyone else reaches 20/1 and her bases will still be comparable to the rest of your team. If you bump Charlotte and/or Benny up a tier than you need to bump Effie and Arthur up as they are strictly better in everything important. And neither of them deserve to be higher than C in my opinion. Hell, give Keaton a heart seal and arms scroll and he's a better fighter than Charlotte.

I agree with everything joshcja said. If we allow castle grinding, why not DLC? If Haitaka is critical for Ch 10, it's trivial to arrange his recruitment. Chapters 7-9, Invasion 1 and P1 are enough to S-Rank Jakob and Corrin. Save I1 and P1 for after Ch 9, 2-turn Dwyer's Paralogue and you have Haitaka. Though I usually only use him for Takumi on 13.

I would say that the benefits a given Paralogue offer absolutely should factor into a units ranking since Conquest is the most restrictive route. I would also say that capturable bosses should be included since the Conquest ones actually bring unique strategic options to the table and Capture is the largest reason for Niles to be A ranked. Otherwise his biggest advantages are speed and resistance which Kaze does just as well with better hit rates. I would move Xander down to A. His sword is a better unit than he is. Elise would go up to A and Leo is a solid B. For my controversial statement, I would put Odin at B as well. It's trivial to feed him a few levels in 8, 9 and P1. He's your best counter to the archers in 10 and 11, he can nearly solo the right side of 12 and he does well against the knights and cavaliers in 13. Early promoted in 14 and he'll be equal or better than Leo with an actual speed stat and Brinhyldr isn't worth the extra rank. Odin is also the best Nosferatu user. It's been nerfed to hell but it still puts in solid work. Effie, Beruka and Silas are roughly the same. In any other class Effie will be the fastest of the 3 and she and Beruka have better personal skills. Solid B for all 3. Benny should be C. With the beast killer he can solo Kitsune Lair, but otherwise all he has for him is defense. He would probably be a better Fighter than Arthur.

It's almost as if there's different ways to use units.

If you read that tier list, you'd see it's not ranked solely on combat potential but on efficiency. This is why Mozu is at the bottom of every single list since she can turn into a decent combat unit in the mid-late game, but it takes a huge investment and there's nothing efficient about her. I wasn't involved in the tier list, nor have I read every comment but I can speak to a few points. Rinkah is as high as she is for a number of reasons, which isn't even that high. She's only 1 spot above Oboro in that list and both are in the mid-tier which means they're basically interchangeable. Her availability is awesome, for one. A solid tank coming in at Chapter 3 is huge in a route where no one has defense to speak of. Her pair up bonuses are excellent for Chapters 7 and 9 and if paired up with a male Corrin you can unlock Kana before Chapter 10, or provide much needed defense and strength for Kaze in the early game when he needs it the most. Honestly, by the time you recruit Oboro she's largely obsolete, but by then she's done her job and done it well. If you do keep her around, she's your only source of Seal Resistance without reclassing which can help get Orochi or Hayato off the ground if those are the units you want to train. Shove is a vastly under estimated skill in a game where only one class can use it, and passing on Death Blow through marriage or friendship can't be overlooked. But as for her placement relative to Oboro's, again they're 1 space apart in the middle of the pack which means they're completely interchangeable for what they do. Reina is so high because she comes in on a map where she's needed immediately and takes no investment to use. Most people have probably given up on Subaki by now which means your only other flier is Hinoka who might be level 11 by now unless you've been ignoring everyone else. If you want to early seal Hinoka then by all means do so, but she's one of the few units who benefits from waiting a little longer. Really, your 2 Master Seals are probably better used on Hinata and Oboro/Kaze especially if you're not planning on keeping the latter past Chapter 15. Reina struggles against maybe the Malig Knights on her join chapter, but more importantly she's excellent for training Hinoka and arguably Subaki on this map. In Attack Stance, she allows those two to completely obliterate every flier they come into contact with while taking little to no damage themselves. Solid mid-game utility, no investment needed and an instant delete button against the numerous wyverns Nohr likes to throw at you definitely makes her a solid unit. Scarlet does most things than she does better but 5 chapters later. Also, flight. Subaki is ranked mostly because of flight. His combat is trash, but an early game flier is invaluable especially on Chapter 8. He's ranked solely for utility and an early game child with a Swordslayer. Passing on Pegasus access to his wife and friends is also a bonus. Orochi is as high as she is because of Capture shenanigans and pair up. Capture is another skill that most people ignore, but is immensely useful. With proper marriage planning shenanigans, you can easily get Silas's paralogue super early which means you can capture useful bosses to help fill out your roster. Especially if you want to avoid training certain trash units you get in the early game. On Birthright, you can easily unlock Jakob's and Corrin's paralogues before Chapter 10. This is 2 additional maps you can gain experience for your useful units and 2 more maps to build supports. You can reliably unlock Saizo's, Azura's, Subaki's and Silas's (and quite possibly Azama's and Hayato's) paralogues in this time. I've done it and can repeat it, since my whole playstyle with Awakening and Fates revolves around full recruitment no-grind runs. This gives you a total of 6-8 extra maps to gain experience, useful weapons, staves, seals and units going into Chapter 10. This also gives you 4 capturable bosses, the most useful being Funke and Nichol. Funke gives you a healer with combat utility, as well as Pass shenanigans and +1 move on pair up while Nichol can do everything Scarlet can do. Neither has a personal skill, but Scarlet's is trash anyway. Neither can build supports either, but Scarlet is only able to support Corrin and he's likely married and moved on by then. You can reliably recruit both of them by Chapter 13, giving you access to 4 classes worth of Nohr skills and a flying tank 3 chapters before you can recruit Ryoma and Scarlet. Also she gives solid pair up bonuses to Saizo. Saizo is so high because he joins so early, has access to the best weapon type in the game, enough bulk to be used on the front lines unlike his brother and he gains a mount on promotion since Mechanist is better than Master Ninja for him. Ryoma can gain a mount as well, but he loses the best part about himself in the process. Takumi is where he is because he costs a huge investment in the mid game and 2-range bow lock until promotion. I'd honestly put him higher than he is simply because he deletes everything that flies for the whole game and is a hard counter to every ninja he meets, but his speed does fall off hard around Chapter 15.

Leo Both suck.

You can easily get all of the children in a no-grind run even on Hard Mode. You'll be spreading the experience a bit thin in the early game, but once you get to Chapter 12 you should be good to go.

Cherche was recruited with no issues. I had to take her to Carrion Isle, which wasn't a lot of fun. I lost Panne there since she decided to not dodge anything. Nowi is still struggling along, though I'm wondering if it's even worth it since she needs a Dragonstone+ to remain viable. I continued Cherche's training on the ship fighting the Valmese, along with Henry and Lucina. Her training ends here though, because she just can't keep up with Sully and Sumia. Sumia still clocks in with one of the highest Defense scores on my team and a passable Strength score. Sully is stronger and physically tankier with only slightly less speed. I'm about to tackle the Valmese on the beach. Lon'qu officially hits the bench since Say'ri comes in at a lower level with equal Strength and Defense and higher scores in everyting else. I think my endgame team has pretty much been decided at this point barring any surprises if I manage to make any more kids. Right now I have Great Knight!Chrom, Dark Knight!Robin (via Dark Mage), Cavalier!Lucina, Dark Knight!Ricken (21 Defense! 20 Speed!), Falcon Knight!Sumia (18 Defense!), Warrior!Vaike, Wyvern Lord!Sully, Warrior Cleric!Lissa, Warrior Monk!Libra, Trickster!Anna, Sorceror!Henry, Hero!Gregor and Manakete!Nowi. Sumia ended up being Lucina's mother. Future pairings include Ricken&Sully, Vaike&Lissa and Gregor&Robin. Henry's only potential spouse is Nowi and I have none active for Libra or Anna.