Garlyle

I don't see Binding Blade as a Horse Emblem 2.0, that's one thing. Plus if we are pushing the limit, it has armor triangle attack and infinite boots. I only went with the armor trio once, but I had a lot of fun with Wendy once she was trained enough. But Thracia is not a land for armors for sure. This is more like a playground for mages instead. There are bolting mages, mage knights, a hallway to go through where mages attack you from both sides, a defense map where the enemy surrounds you with Hammers, fog of war where enemies jump on you with Hammers(even as a boss), teleporting mages, and a bunch of crap to deal with where anything is better than a fielded armor knight. For a long time Dalshin is the only armor knight you can field, and staff users can just mess around with him, while Xavier's recruitment requirement is the most complicated from all the Fire Emblem games. After Chapter 7, I found no good reason to use Dalshin anymore.

That sounds like Thracia all right. The bad news is it has ballistas, convenient ballistas, poison ballistas, ambush ballistas, ballistas as reinforcements, and even 15 range ballistas too. The goods news is they don't appear in every chapter.

Well, for the record I also like a challenge, and that's why I tried Binding Blade, and later tried to finish Thracia. I did finish both of them, but for Thracia... I needed guides to see what the BS fog of war was hiding from me, creating formations before battle, help me finding supports, and just to see what items I should look for/hold on to get through the most unfair obstacles. Staves changed this game a lot, like status staves can reach the entire map and their effect lasts until the end of the chapter. Still, I just love some of the characters from Thracia. Also, I hope you like the ballistas of Judgral. (I don't)

The gameplay is very much different. It introduced a lot of mechanics that were part of later fire emblem games, while having some of their own. I'd write more about this, but there's so many things new compared to FE4. But don't go with Thracia unless you are looking for a challenge. This game is known to be the most difficult one in the series. You create your main character, but it's safe to say that Marth is still the hero in that game.

I'd suggest Blazing Blade for training ground(so you familiarize the gba games), then Binding Blade for the fun parts.

Here's my opinion on the games I finished and still remember them Genealogy of the Holy War - imbalanced towards the mounted units and holy weapons are considered broken. That makes some foot units not worth training, even when those have some hidden gems. Thracia 776 - has a high number of very strong units, but also has a lot of units not even worth using. Lances become unusable in the last chapters, because units can only use them while mounted. Dalshin might be the exception, but this game is the worst for armor knights. Binding Blade - probably most imbalanced, as axes are even more inaccurate as in any other games. The game gives you a handful of low level units, who can't even become as strong as earlier recruitments in the same class. Foot archers are outclassed by the nomad squads. Blazing Sword - I think this game is well balanced, maybe best balanced. Only a few units who are not worth using. Three Houses - has a weird balance where a lot of units can become good, and even bad units sometimes starts to shine. Although the classes are not so well balanced.

@dragonlordsd In other words, she's great out of the box. So you could go back searching for more skills for her in intermediate or master classes, but it's not really needed. Combat Arts she gets are fine, Healing Focus is easy to unlock. From training swords, he can get the abilities she needs the most, she can go with Sword Prowess Lv 5, Sword Crit +10, Axebreaker, Authority Lv.X and maybe some ability that she picked up from training certain movement types.

For me Catherine is S tier. Starts as a Swordmaster(doesn't even need to switch classes), bring the Thunderbrand, good speed and avoid, can unlock self-healing from brawling early on. Also in my playthrough if she fell behind in levelling, there was no issue when it came to catching up. I think she's the best recruit from the church.

I updated the first post, given some reasons for Linhardt, Caspar, Ferdinand, Bernadetta, Ignatz and Felix - some might not be the best reasons, but it's a good start. @Dandy Druid Does Hilda remain strong on offense in Lunatic? I can see some issue coming up with her accuracy. I do like her, but the only thing I see from her is being a Freikugel wielding Wyvern Lord. I think to get all the rewards from Dorothea + Ingrid paralogue, you need to have both of them on your team. Ingrid gets the Lúin lance, and Dorothea gets the Goddess Ring I believe. I'm trying to use Dorothea more, but the best offense she offers for me is Thoron so far.

Fog of War would be an interesting mechanic, but the way it's handled in Fire Emblem can be really frustrating. For example when you can only attack what you see, yet the enemy can still attack what they can reach - a big part of this issue. Especially when the game gives the enemy Bolting tomes and status staves which you don't even know where they come from, and surprise - somebody is dead. Or when they also put you into a desert with fog of war where you can hardly move, but the enemy has a squad full of mages and flying units who are not hindered by the movement (yes fe6 ch14, I am looking at you). Times like this fog of war just feels unfair. Or combine fog of war of Thracia where the enemy has a status staves that has infinite reach, and status effects last until the end of the chapter - feels even more unfair. Recently Three Houses pulled a bad one with fog of war too, unless you are using Torches you are up to nasty surprises, like Swordmasters rushing you down and doubling you, or 3 mages out of nowhere to kill your armor knight. Even when I feel like I'm playing safely, fog of war does find a way to screw me over. The best action would be to limit the enemy's field of view as well, so they can only attack targets in their fog of war - fair play. Or don't put 15+ range units into this map without indicating them. Ballistas were at least visible in some games, but the mentioned mages were not. Another option is to give the enemies torches as well, but both sides can see where the torchlight is coming from - that could be an interesting twist. Maybe allow your units to be invisible in some tiles during fog of war maps.

Ashe: no idea, so I voted as dancer Ingrid: clearly she meant to be a Falcon Knight. Lorenz: his skill proficiencies tells that he's best as a Dark Knight.

So Dorothea is the best ballista mage? I guess Linhardt has Warp, but his Mag stat and later Warp means his Warp will be half as good as Lysithea. Felix Shield sounds reasonable, but it's his crest that made me consider to put up an idea on him - plus he doubles easily. Leonie COULD be a better Bow Knight, but could be not - it's still a growth game, and every house has a starting archer candidate (Bernadetta, Ashe, Ignatz, I am looking at you) Hilda, reasonable still for only BL and GD runs from what you said. She's one of the harder recruits, so what else she offers? Rafail Gem does sound nice, but unfortunately I never had the chance to aquire it yet. I'm focusing on the positives in this topic, so I'm not going to evaluate on the negatives here - I need the good reasons to recruit someone. I might even go out to defend Ignatz later on.

That'd be Ruined Sky. Swift Strikes attacks twice for the cost of 4 lance uses before the opponent can answer - fixes up slow lance units, but only a few can learn it. Lorenz and Lysithea are usually my earliest recruit goals, but Lorenz just to get into his paralogue. His Spd caused me too much problem in my first run.

So I was thinking - if Lunatic or other difficulty comes to play, what would be a good reason for these people to recruit them? Could they do anything for us besides warming the bench or they do have something that can give you something OP to win against anything. I'm going to think this through later, but so far this is what I come up with. Let me know if I forgot to mention something. I'm considering these in long run. Black Eagles Petra - she's fast. great balance in stats, easy to train no matter what class you pick for her Caspar - only if you need the Rafail gem Bernadetta - Encloser, Deadeye. Nice utility, keep an eye on her offense though Linhardt - if you need 1 more Warp user Ferdinand - shaky earlygame, but good proficiencies and personal skill. +Swift Strikes Unsure about Dorothea Blue Lions Sylvain - Lance of Ruin, Swift Strikes, Stride Battalion, free for female Byleth Mercedes - Fortify, Physic, live to serve, 10/10 best healer in the game Annette - because Lightning Axe is so much fun even without Crusher, or Rally Up Ingrid - flying, dodging, Lúin, low recruitment requirements Felix - strong offense early and midgame, sometimes dealing extra 5 damage. Aegis Shield is heavy, but useful on him. Hmm, nothing jumps to my mind for Ashe Golden Deer Lysithea - Dark Spikes, Luna, Warp, Seraphim, dropping a nuke on everything Lorenz - 1 word: Thrysus Marianne - Physic, Silence, Blutgang, personality Ignatz - possibly use from Break Shot and Seal Strength for safety. Highly accurate even on Bow Knight range 4. Ward Arrow is a secondary silence. I'll think up something for Raphael, Leonie and Hilda. Freikugel is not a good reason for recruitment, except if you are Dimitri.

I like this, it's practically turning Ashe into the 3H version of Lara from Thracia - opening locks or just dancing. Flayn can become a pretty good Holy Knight after her training montage, thanks to Fortify, Rescue, Magic Range +1 equip and tanky Res. I'm not really sure what I'd make from Ashe though, so Dancer sounds reasonable for me.

Really? I think casual runs are risk free and it's a good option for beginners in the series. Classic is still not that bad, considering the abundance of Divine Pulses - so soon I'll try to do a no pulse run.

Also I just realized after your post that the Divine Statue of Cichol gives bonus to flying exp for 2000 renown. Honestly, I'm also going to test these things out, as I rather went to unlock support conversations instead of meme builds.

Huh, I though Marianne, Dorothea and Flayn are the big three. Who's using Lysithea as a dancer anyway?

I don't think I ever reached S+ rank, but I can think of a few things how to achieve it. For flying S+ as example: Always deploy her as a flying unit Goal set to flying only Tutoring in flying when you get a chance Assign her on a flier group task with somebody Divine Statue of Cichol gives bonus to flying exp for 2000 renown Use the Knowledge Gem Though honestly I like to focus on the goals for 2 things at the same time. Group tasks doesn't give a lot of exp, it's better to build the support level between the 2 of them. Some classes are better when it comes to gain exp in flying, +2 from Pegasus Knight and +3 from Falcon Knight.

Even if she get the ring, she can still choose the option to marry nobody by the end of the game, so it's counter-intuitive not to get the ring in the first place. Reminds me the time when I used Ingrid in my BL Hard/Classic run - I think it was around ch20 when I decided to use her high evasion as a Falcon Knight to bait over 3-4 Snipers without Aurora Shield or anything(I know, call me nuts). GD route Lysithea was grabbing the MVP spot on the final 3-4 chapters.

And there's me who at first glance though the one of the left is Ashe. Then I thought, too soon.

First playthrough I recruited and used Petra. No reason not to really. Lysithea, because nuclear mages are fun to have. Lorenz, just so I can get the Thrysus from his paralogue. Catherine, best church recruit by far. Ingrid, she flies, she's fast, and she dodges. Was underutilized in my first run unfortunately. Sylvian when I'm a female, he's practically free. His Crest weapon and Swift Strikes makes sure he'll be a good Cav. Also if I have the opportunity: Marianne, my precious dancer. Optionally, I like recruiting Felix, Mercedes for their role, and Bernadetta so I don't have to kill her. Not recruiting them in my first playthrough made Chapter 17 difficult for me, but not because of the gameplay.

Looks like I'm a bit late for the conversation. I actually did Golden Deer path, and the difficulty of the game was higher on the final 1/3 of the game - wasn't terrible, but up until that point I found Hard/Classic easy. I had a really good Claude, a nuke Lysithea, a giant wall Raphael, Bow Knight Ignatz, dancer Marianne, Holy Knight Flayn, Seteth and Catherine as themselves, and Petra... as a Mortal Savant. You cna tell I had no idea what I was doing, but I had a lot of fun regardless. As for the map - I have issues with ballistas in any Fire Emblem games, so I'm trying to bait their shots from a far distance. I had to split my forces to go to the south for the mage to stop reinforcements, but also another group to go on top to kill the bolting bastard to remove the swamp. Having someone with good res on top backed up with a healer helped a lot. On the bottom if I recall correctly I rushed a bit more, and Ignatz was able to snipe the mage from a range of 4. After that, the map was simple enough, and I was able to join my forces in front of big boss. To be honest, he was the major roadblock of this map, and I wasn't sure what to do with him for a while. Obviously you can do a hit and run to get him off his tile to make the fight easier, but I never relied on that. Gambits and Crest weapons can do damage to him, thank god for Freikugel. As a finishing move, Luna from Lysithea did enough damage to finish him off - no need for lucky crits. Also noticed that Mekkah just finished his Golden Deer run too, so I'll check his strats for big boss when I have the time.

My Ignatz did pretty good in GD Hard/Classic. Went down as Archer -> Sniper -> Bow Knight. He's actually better than what people think of him.

@freewaffles Now that you mentioned it, I wasn't even thinking about the first post timeskip map when I came up with the idea of the no crest run challenge. Levels are looking pretty good, class choices look a bit unusual for me now, also turning Ignatz into a dancer feels really stupid - hope you know what you are doing. =O Not trying to be offensive, I'd rather choose Dorothea as my dancer for this.